Taraweeh Reflections
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How Much Quran Should I Read in Ramadan? | Taraweeh Reflections
Is there any Prophetic guidance on how to measure our quantifiable goals for reading the Qur'an this month while still contemplating and reflecting? What is a practical way to decide this?
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. So tonight I actually wanted to tackle one of the most frequently asked questions about Ramadan, particularly for those who set spiritual goals to get closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And one of the most frequently asked questions is how much Qur'an should I be reading? Do I finish one khatm? What if I, you know, don't know how to read Arabic yet? Or what if I read very slowly or what if I don't understand it? Do I finish it twice, three times? What should my Qur'an goal be in relation to the other months of the year? And subhanAllah, this is a deep question because one of the beautiful things about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam is that there is guidance from him for everything that we do and that takes into consideration every circumstance. So before we get there, let's establish a few things. Number one, what you read in Ramadan should be more than what you read outside of Ramadan. Everyone understands that much, right? What you read in Ramadan should depart from your usual recitation of the Qur'an. It should not be completely abandonment and then getting into it just for one month. But there should be some discrepancy, a healthy discrepancy, or let's say a variation between your recitation outside of Ramadan and your recitation in Ramadan. This is something we learn from the pious predecessors. We see this from the Salaf. Number two, the hadith where Jibreel alayhi wasalam used to come to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam and he would review the Qur'an with him in its entirety every year. And the last year of his life sallallahu alayhi wasalam, he reviewed it with him twice. Okay, so there's some level of review, some basis for the idea of going cover to cover in particular within Ramadan. And the only way Allah describes this month of Ramadan in the Qur'an is by its attribution to the Qur'an.
The one verse, shahrul ramadan allathee unzila feehi alquran. This is the month of Ramadan in which the Qur'an was revealed. Therefore, it is the month in which the Qur'an is to be recited like no other month of the year. So let's go through some rules inshallah ta'ala because this is actually a profound question, and it's an enjoyable one when you start to look at the lives of the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam. I'm going to ask you guys some questions. Did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam actually give an equation for how much Qur'an you should read on a regular basis or some advice to the companions outside of the month of Ramadan? Is there a number that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam mentioned of how many times the sahaba could do a khatm, they could finish the Qur'an cover to cover in a month? Does anybody know? No? You got the hadith right, but the number is off. So you have the right seerah, but yeah. All right, so there's one narration where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam prohibits or seemingly prohibits finishing the Qur'an more than once within three days. So that's one narration where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam seemingly prohibits finishing the entire Qur'an more than once in three days. Okay, there's another narration though. Abu Amir, you're there. What did you have for iftar? I'm sorry, you're close. But there's actually a narration where there's something that's prescriptive. So this is prohibitive. This is prescriptive. It's a narration where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam mentions, to finish the Qur'an every seven days if you would like to and to not go beyond that. And this is actually so weekly khatm of the Qur'an. And so this is actually when you read in the books of ilum al-Qur'an, this is what's referred to as a tasbeer, reading the Qur'an once a week.
And subhanAllah, it's a beautiful narration because there is a mechanism to this. One of the tabi'een authentically said, I asked the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam, I asked the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam, How did you used to finish the Qur'an? What was your methodology? So they said that we would read three and then five and then seven and then nine and then 11 and then 13 and then we would finish off with al-mufasal, which are the surah Qaf onwards. What does that mean? Three, one day, day number one, we'd read al-Baqarah, al-Imran, and nisa. Then we'd read five the next day. So you take after that al-Ma'idah to surah at-Tawbah. Then we would read seven starting from surah Yunus onwards. Then we would read nine, eleven, thirteen by surahs. And then the last day we would take al-Mufasal, which are surah Qaf onwards, surah Qaf until the end of the mushaf. So this is an authentic narration that gives you some insight into the ways, a methodical way that many of the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam used to approach the Qur'an, reading it on a weekly basis that would give them four khatms a month. And this is something that's narrated for many of the salaf. Imam Ahmed rahimullah, his son, narrates that he used to do his tasbih from Jum'ah to Jum'ah. So he would always finish his khatm right before Jum'ah. This is narrated from Qatad rahimullah, it's narrated from al-Awza'i. Many of the salaf, many of the companions had this habit of finishing the Qur'an once a week. So now you guys are like, okay, well, what happens in Ramadan? So the answer is once a week. We have to do it once a week now. So I can end the khatira now and send you all home depressed. All right. No, this is to just show you there was a methodology here. There was a method that they were taking into consideration. They were weighing the times that they would start to the time that it would end. Some of them even had a particular day that they would start, a day that they would end.
And that's important because it shows you the importance of getting as structured as possible with it. That's the lesson I want you to take from this, is to be structured throughout the year. Think about it. So they're waking up and they know exactly how many surahs they're going to read that day. That's beautiful. And many of them were not hufadh, by the way. Many of the companions, the majority of the companions of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam were not hufadh. But they were thinking about how many surahs they were going to read every day. And they had a day in mind that they would start, a day in mind that they would finish. That keeps you accountable to something. And that's something that we should do throughout the year. The quantity aside. Okay, building on that. When Ramadan would come, it is obvious that the sahaba did not see, and the pious predecessors did not see that there was anything of dislike to increasing the reading of the Quran way beyond once every three days. And so you start to see the narrations, sahaba, salaf that would finish the Quran once a day in Ramadan. Some of them twice a day, narrated from Uthman radiyaAllahu anhu wa shafi'i rahimahullah, even from later generation, twice a day. And you're thinking, how is that possible? Just put that to the side for a moment and just establish the principle that they understood that when Ramadan came along, it was go time. They busied themselves with the Quran the entire day and entire night. Granted, the entire society revolves around reading the Quran in Ramadan. So subhanAllah, if you live in those societies at the time and you're walking around, there is a culture of the Quran here. Everyone's trying to recite as much of it as they possibly can. And they are exerting themselves in worship. And of course, some of this is included in their qiyam. They would recite in their qiyam, outside of their qiyam. The point is, is that there is another level of exertion within the month of Ramadan. So Qatad rahimahullah, for example, used to recite the Quran once a week.
And then when Ramadan came around, so I want you to take another methodical point here. The first 20 days of Ramadan, he would finish the Quran once every three days. And then the last 10 nights of Ramadan, he'd finish it once a night. So he did once every three days within the first 20. And then he did once every one of the last 10 nights. That's what we're all going to be doing, right? InshaAllah, one day. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala give us barakah in our time and give us that connection to the Quran. Now you're hearing this and you're going like, all right, this is so demoralizing. People used to read the Quran that much, then if you really start reading about like the way the Salaf looked at a person who said, if you didn't finish the Quran once a month, you know, it was like a sign of something. And we ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to protect us from hypocrisy or from being amongst those that abandon the Quran. And obviously abandoning the Quran is in spirit, is in action, is in recitation, is in so many different ways. But what do we actually take from this? Number one, a principle. Ramadan is the time to exert yourself with the Quran like no other time of the year. Number two, if you don't have a structure to how often you're trying to finish the Quran, even if it's once a year outside of Ramadan, you will fail with your Quran goals. You have to have a method there. You have to have a science to it. Start with something small and consistent and that you know you can accomplish inshaAllah ta'ala. A very easy way to think about this is that your Quran goal for Ramadan, do half of it in shawwal inshaAllah ta'ala. A very easy way to think about this that I'll do half of it in shawwal bi-idhnillah and I'll try to make that my habit. If I have to adjust after shawwal, maybe I'll adjust to a third of my Ramadan goal. But you've got to have some method there to how much you're reciting. Number three, circumstances are different.
Imam al-Nawawi rahimahullah ta'ala was asked this question about how often the Quran should be recited in Ramadan in particular. And he said something very profound. He said that, you know, not everyone has the same circumstances. Everyone should read it at least to a point that they can understand and reflect. You can understand and reflect. And then he said, and those who are doing other forms of good should not be discouraged. And he starts to mention, he says, the person, man kana mashghul binashr al-din wa muhimmat al-din wa masalih al-muslimin. He'll use these examples. A person who's involved in spreading knowledge or serving the Muslims, the volunteers, they're obviously not going to have the same opportunities to read. Extend that to the personal life, right? If I've got a full-time job or if I have to take care of a house and I've got to do all sorts of other things, my circumstances will differ. Circumstances will differ from person to person. If I don't understand what I'm reading versus I do understand what I'm reading. Remember the hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the one who recites the Quran and struggles has twice the reward. And so, you know, we have people, mashallah, who just converted, you know, to Islam, right? And Hector is looking at me like he's going to hit me. He's like, what are you doing, man? What did you bring me into? You got to finish the whole Quran every night, all right? Now, what do you do? You read the translation and you try to learn the Arabic as well. You read the tafsir, the understanding of it, side by side. It's about the time that you're spending to it. You're committing to the Quran and keeping yourself busy with it and trying to come close to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Now, you want to get to a point where you understand the Quran itself. SubhanAllah, you know, Sheikh Tahir Wyatt, we were in Umrah together and he said something very beautiful. He gave a sports analogy to this question. He said if you look at an athlete and you see an athlete that comes in as a rookie, right?
So, a convert to pro sports, all right, comes in as a rookie. And even if they've got all the talent, they've got all the skills, the game seems too fast for them when they start. There's a nervousness there. There's things are moving too fast around them and you'll always hear them use this term. They'll say the game slowed down for me. I settled in with practice, with experience, the game slowed down for me. Like I recognized things, the panic was gone, the understanding of the things, even if I have the technical knowledge, the repetition, the settling into it, the game slowed down. And SubhanAllah, he used that example with, you know, when we look at the Salaf with the Quran, the pious predecessors with the Quran, these were people that engage the Quran day and night throughout the year. And so when they're looking at a page, it's different than when you and I are looking at a page. So we take the lessons from them. The answer is engage it in whatever way you possibly can and push yourself and have a method to it. Have a goal for yourself, have a method to it, and have a method to how you're going to keep up with it after Ramadan. Remember the complaint of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that my people, that my people have abandoned this Quran. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make us people of the Quran that recite it, that long for it, that pray with it, that supplicate with it, that are raised by it on the day of judgment. Allahuma Ameen. JazakumAllahu Khayran. Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu.
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