Recite the Qur'an the way that Allah Most High recites it!

  

The Qur'an and The Moon

Divine Methodology for Monthly Recitation of the Qur'an 

 

Recite the Qur'an the way that Allah Most High recites it!  

Allah Most High has commanded that the Qur’an be recited the way that He recited it:  

 

And when We have recited this Qur’an, O Muhammad, you must follow that way of recitation! Qur’an, al-Qiyamah, 75:18 

 

The reader would be curious to know: when did Allah Most High recite the Qur’an to Prophet Muhammad pbuh? There is an abundance of evidence of the Qur’an being Divinely revealed from time to time over a period of 23 years, to the heart of the Prophet. This kind of revelation is known as Wahi. But we know of only one instance of Divine recitation, i.e., Qira’a, of the whole Qur’an to the Prophet; that was, of course, when the Angel Gabriel came to the Prophet every night of Ramadan to recite the Qur’an to him. Hence it has to be this nightly Qira’a of the Qur’an in Ramadan that Allah Most High referred to as Divine recitation:

 

Fatimah reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said,”Gabriel would come to me to revise the Qur’an once every year. This year he revised with me twice. I do not think it means anything but that my term will come to an end. Verily, you will be the first of the people of my house to meet me.” So I wept and the Prophet said, “Would you not be pleased to be with the master of the women of Paradise or would you prefer to be (here-below) with the believing women?” So I laughed at that. [Sahih Bukhari]

 

Narrated Ibn `Abbas:

The Prophet was the most generous of all the people, and he used to become more generous in Ramadan when Gabriel met him. Gabriel used to meet him every night during Ramadan to revise the Qur'an with him. Allah's Messenger then used to be more generous than the fast wind. [Sahih Bukhari ]

 

We must now examine how the Qur’an was recited every night of the month of Ramadan, so that we can obey the Divine command to “follow that way of recitation”.

 

Since Allah Most High recited the whole Qur’an (through the Angel Gabriel) during that blessed month every year, we have a duty to recite the whole Qur’an, from cover to cover, during the month of Ramadan; indeed the Prophet asked that we should keep on reciting the Qur’an cover-to-cover at least once every lunar  month: 

 

Abdullah ibn Amr reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Read the Qur'an once in every month.” I said, “I have strength to do more.” The Prophet said, “Then read it in twenty nights.” I said, “I have strength to do more.” The Prophet said, “Then read it in seven nights, and do not do more than that.” [Sahih Bukhari; Sahih Muslim]

 

The Angel recited a part of the Qur’an every night of Ramadan and completed the recitation of the whole Qur’an during the month of Ramadan, hence we have a duty to determine the divisions of the Qur’an for daily recitation in order to complete the whole Qur’an in a period of one month. That daily portion is called a Juz (plural Ajza). The Farsi word Sipara, has also been widely used for Juz. We also have an obligation to recite the Qur’an as it ought to be recited—which is the way that Allah Most High recited it—and hence we need to determine which is the first Juz, and which the second, etc., and that is the subject of this book. It is, of course, permissible to recite the Qur’an more than once in a lunar month, but we do not address that subject in this book.

 

Source

 to be continued . . . .