How much Quran should we read?

Assalamu alaikum w w
The following is a transcript of one bayan which was done regarding virtues of reciting the Quran. It was transcribed by my friend Hafez Wahhaaj of Dallas, USA. May Allah reward him for his effort and fulfil his needs of dunya and aakhirah. Ameen

Bismihi Ta’ala
The other day I sent a link to a bayaan about reading the Quran by Shaykh Abdur Raheem Limbada (db), one of the Senior Hadith Teachers at Darul Uloom Bury, the biggest madrassah in England. This is the link:

Qur'aan Parnai ki Fazeelat [URDU]

However, I realized two things: 1. Not everybody can speak Urdu and 2. Mashallah most of you guys are busy doing Zikr in Ramadan and don’t have time to listen to a 45 minute speech. So I translated and summarized the bayan. Obviously it is very long, and if you have time, read it all, otherwise just look at the points that I made bold. However, if you have the time, I would encourage you to listen to the bayan in the car or something, because my translation does not do it justice. Maulana Saab has a very unique and beautiful way of explaining things. I also divided it into sections so that it would be easier to see what topics you are interested in. If I wanted to clarify anything I put it in [ ]’s. Everything else is what Maulana Saab said. Inshallah this will encourage us to try to read Quran more. Please keep me in your Duas.

Introduction
On the Day of Judgment, two things will be very strong intercessors: Fasting and Quran. Fasting will say to Allah swt, “Forgive this servant because during the day I stopped your servant from eating, drinking and fulfilling his desires”. The Quran will say to Allah swt, “Forgive this servant because I used to keep him awake at night”. Ie He used to stay up and read a lot of Quran. Allah will accept both of their intercessions and forgive the person.

In Ramadan, the noor of the day and the noor of the night are different. During the day, there is the noor of fasting and during the night there is the noor of Taraweeh, Tahajjud, Tilawat, etc. Muslims should try to attain both noors to the fullest of their ability. Allah commanded us to read the Quran: اتْلُ مَا أُوحِيَ إِلَيْكَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ “Recite (O Muhammad SAW) what has been revealed to you of the Book (the Quran).”

Just like many other commands addressing Nabi (sa), the ummah is also included in the command (like أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ لِدُلُوكِ الشَّمْسِ…). Notice that the ayah commands to recite, rather than read. Reading entails understanding, but reciting can be done with or without understanding. Allah swt also says: إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَتْلُونَ كِتَابَ اللَّـهِ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَأَنفَقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ سِرًّا وَعَلَانِيَةً يَرْجُونَ تِجَارَةً لَّن تَبُورَ “Verily, those who recite the Book of Allah (this Quran), and perform Salat and spend (in charity) out of what We have provided for them, secretly and openly, hope for a (sure) tradegain that will never perish. That He may pay them their wages in full, and give them (even) more, out of His Grace. Verily! He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Ready to appreciate (good deeds and to recompense).”

Allah swt will give a person their full amount of good deeds and even more on the Day of Judgment for the above mentioned deeds. He will reward them so much that they will be surprised and think “All of this for me? I didn’t do this many good deeds!”

Hadith
Nabi (sa) also commanded us in many hadith to recite the Quran [note: I just translated/paraphrased the hadith. Maulana Saab says the actual Arabic wording of the hadith in the audio]:
• Read the Quran because it will intercede for you on the Day of Judgement.
• Read the two shining surahs a lot (Surah Baqarah and Surah Ali Imran). On the Day of Judgment when everyone is looking for shade, these two surahs will appear like clouds over the person who used to read them and follow the person, and give them shade on a day where there is no shade.
• Read Surah Baqara because there is a lot of Baraka in it, and it protects against magic.
• Read 10 paras before you go to sleep. The Sahabi (ra) asked how can somebody recite 10 paras every day before going to sleep? Nabi sa replied that reading Sura Ikhlas (Qul huwallahu ahad) is like reading 1/3 of the Quran.
• Reading Surah Kafiroon and Iklhlas before going to sleep.

Status of Tilawat of Quran in Comparison to other Deeds
Rasulullah (sa) says in another hadith that “Reciting Quran in Salat is better than reciting Quran out of namaz, reciting Quran outside of namaz is better than tasbeeh, tasbeeh is better than sadaqa, sadaqa is better than fasting, and fasting saves one from Jahannam.” In the ranking of deeds, recitation of Quran comes first. In some other Hadith, Nabi (sa) gives glad tidings to the ones that recite a lot of Quran:
• The example of a Muslim that recites a lot of Quran is like a citrus fruit (sweet smell and taste). The Muslim that doesn’t read Quran is like a date (no sweet smell, but sweet taste). The hypocrite that reads Quran is like a flower (sweet smell, bad taste), and the hypocrite that doesn’t read Quran is like hanzal ka bheej [I don’t know what that is in English] (no smell but bitter taste).
• A hafiz who recites a lot of Quran is like a bag of musk that is open and its sweet smell is spreading everywhere, and a hafiz that doesn’t recite Quran is like a bag of musk that is sealed tight.

Have we read as much Quran as we should during this month? Allah swt gives a person 10 good deeds for every letter he reads. [That is outside of Ramadan, we can only imagine how much He gives in Ramadan]. So for Alif-Laam-Meem, a person gets 30 good deeds. For Bismillah hir Rahmanir Raheem, which has 19 letters, a person gets 190 good deeds. The Quran has about 400,000 letters, if you read the whole Quran once you become a millionaire!

In a hadith it says that “the Quran is a proof for you or against you.” If we fulfill the Quran’s right on us, it will intercede for us on the Day of Judgment, but if we neglected it, it will lodge complaints against us.

Pious Predecessors
Just look how much our pious predecessors used to read Quran:
• Imam Shafi (rh) and Imam Abu Hanifa (rh) used to do one khatam in the day and one in the night every day in Ramadan.
• Imam Bukhari (rh) used to do one khatam during the day and ten paras in taraweeh and nafl at night. People always use the excuse that the hadith in Bukhari is for 8 rakat taraweeh, which is a wrong use of the hadith anyway, but look at how much Imam Bukhari read Quran. The people that leave after 8 stay for less than half of taraweeh. Imam Bukhari would spend most of the night in worship. Imam Bukhari died right after Ramadan, on night preceding Eidul fitr. When he was being buried, a beautiful fragrance began emitting from the grave (because of all the Quran he used to read during the month). It lasted for weeks afterwards. This was the fragrance of Quran upon his rooh, which Allah showed everyone after his death.
• When Abu Bakr ibn Ayashi (rh) was dying, his sister was crying. He told her don’t cry because your brother has done 30,000 khatams of the Quran in his life. For years, his practice was to do one khatam every single day, inside and outside of Ramadan. Subhanallah.
• Maualana Islamul Haq (rh), [one of the speaker’s teachers] the former Shaykh ul Hadith of Darul Uloom Bury, [passed away in 1996], he died during Ramadan in Madinah during tahajjud in sajdah, on the 27th night. When the people washed his body, they put his clothes on the side and they noticed that they were giving off a beautiful smell. This smell remained for weeks. Shaykh Yunus Jaunpuri (db) [the Shaykhul Hadith of Mazahirul Uloom Saharanpur] said this was because of Maulana Saab’s abundant reading of the Quran and when someone reads Quran abundantly, their soul begins to have a beautiful fragrance.
• Hazrat Shaykh (rh) [Shaykhul Hadith Maulana Zakariyya, died in 1980’s] used to read one khatam every day during Ramadan and do one khatam every 2 or 3 days outside of Ramadan. When he died, the soil of his grave gave off a beautiful fragrance which remained on everything that it touched.
• [Maulana Saab actually mentioned this in another bayan, but I thought it was relavent to this topic. Maulana Zakariyya Patel (db) of Toronto (still alive) read the Quran 62 times in Ramadan: 2 every day, 1 in taraweeh and 1 in tahajjud.]

[Someone can say that we can’t be like Imam Shafi (rh) or Imam Abu Hanifa (rh), but the last 3 people lived fairly recently or are still living.]

Objections
Sadly, these days people not only not read Quran, they try to stop others from reading it. Some people say what is the point of reading the Quran if I don’t understand it? The analogy is wrong because the Quran is being compared to other books. For example someone may not read a book on Advanced Physics because even if they try, they will not understand. But the Quran is not written by a man. It is not written by Nabi (sa). It is Kalaamullah. There is so much reward in reading it as mentioned earlier. If a person in this world writes a book and they see someone reading their book, they will obviously become happy. So of course the Creator of the Universe will be happy when he sees you reading His Book! And he is watching you all the time.

Story about Man who Couldn’t Read Quran
A man died in a village and there was nobody to lead the Janaazah. The people saw a Maulana passing by so they asked him to lead the prayer. He agreed and decided to stay a few days and teach the people a few things. At night, he saw the man that they buried earlier in dream. The man was rejoicing and was rewarded and was basically just chilling. When he woke up he went to the man (who died)’s house and asked his daughter what special thing her father did. She said he was very regular in his 5 namaz and that although he couldn’t read Quran, every morning, he would take the Quran and put his finger over the pages as if he was reading and say “Whatever my My Allah said here is true, Whatever my My Allah said here is true, (Mere Allah ne yeh bhi such kaha)”. In this manner he would pass his finger over the lines of a few pages and then he would kiss the Quran and place it on a high shelf. The Maulana realized the man’s love for Allah’s Book was why that man was being rewarded so much.

Conclusion: Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (rh)’s Dream
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (rh) had a dream in which he spoke to Allah swt. He asked Allah, “What zikr is the best way to draw a servant close to You and make him beloved to You?” Allah replied: “Recitation of My Kalaam.” Imam Ahmad then asked, “With understanding or without understanding?” Allah said “Understand it or not, the person who recites it will become My Muqarrab and Mahboob [close and beloved].

[In conclusion, Read as much Quran as you can, inside and outside Ramadan! Make a goal to read at least two khatams during Ramadan (more if you are Hafiz) and work towards that goal and keep reading after Ramadan too. May Allah give us all the taufique to do so.]

—-
Wahaaj.