2. Daily Recitation:
If
we wish to
fulfill our obligation
of reciting the Qur’an, the second thing we are required
to do is to include the recitation of the Qur’an in the daily routine of our
life, and each one of us should recite a certain portion of the Holy Book
regularly every day. The portion fixed for daily recitation can be different
for different people. The maximum portion which has the support
of the Holy
Prophet (SAW) is
one-third of the Qur’an. It means that ten parts should be
recited each day so that the recitation of the whole Qur’an may be completed in
three days. A minimum portion — and mind you, any thing less than this bare
minimum could not even be imagined till recent years — could be one para daily,
so that the whole Qur’an could be read in a month. In fact, this is the least
amount of recitation which should be done every day and an amount less than
this would not be worth the name.
The middle position between the
maximum and minimum
is that one
should read the
whole Qur’an in a week. This, indeed, was the practice followed by the
majority of the Companions (RAA) and the same according to a tradition was
suggested to Abdullah Ibn Umar (RAA) by the Holy Prophet (SAW). It is for this
reason that the Qur’an was divided into seven ahzaab (sections) in the time of
the Companions (RAA).3 The first six of the ahzaab consist of three (excluding
Surah Al-Fatiha), five, seven, nine, eleven, and thirteen Surahs respectively,
and the seventh called Hizb-ul-mufassal consists of the rest of the Holy Book.
Every hizb comprises of approximately four paras (parts), which can be recited
quite satisfactorily in two hours.
Note-3: It may be noted that the present division of the whole text into thirty parts and of each part into smaller sub-parts called ruku‘, was made much later.
Persons of a devout nature and staunch faith should do this amount of recitation daily. Both the common people and intellectuals must depend upon the regular recitation of the Noble Qur'an.
Book for the nourishment of their
souls. To the average kind of men it will serve as an admonition or remembrance
of God, and to the men of learning and intelligence, as a source of knowledge
and food for thought. Even those who ponder over the meaning of the Qur’an day
and night, who think deeply over its individual Surahs for years on end, and
who pause for long over the subtle points
in its text,
cannot do without
this regular recitation. Indeed, they require its aid all
the more in the noble task they have set before themselves. Actually, constant
recitation of the Holy Book will
help solve many of their problems
and will continuously open up new vistas of thought before their minds.4
Note-4: It is a common experience of the devoted scholars
of the Qur’an that when they are perplexed by an intellectual problem weighing
upon their minds, they found that, during course of their recitation of the
Qur’an, a clue to the solution of the problem suddenly struck their minds. They
got the enlightenment from a passage of the Qur’an which they had read hundred
times before, but as their mind was not preoccupied by the problem, the passage
did not yield the interpretation relevant to its solution.
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