Ramaḍān 1443 or April 2022

In the Name of Allāh, all praise is due to Allāh, may praise and protection be upon the Messenger of Allāh, his family, his Companions, and those who follow him in goodness until the Day of Judgement.

To proceed:

This is a compilation of narrations from the Righteous Salaf (al-Salaf al-Ṣāliḥ) demonstrating their relationship with the Qurʾān. The narrations have been adapted from Abū Yaḥyá Zakariyā b. Ghulām Qādir’s Min Akhbār al-Salaf al-Ṣāliḥ published by Maktabat al-Rushd, Riyāḍ in 1437/2016.

Please read the āyāt and aḥādīth regarding the virtues of the Qurʾān and the merits of reciting it from books such as Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn to further understand why the Salaf had such a close bond with the Qurʾān.

I hope you will be inspired by these narrations as much as I was.

I ask Allāh to aid us in following the footsteps of the Salaf, that He causes us to live and die upon the Sunnah, and be raised up with our beloved Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ on the Day of Judgement.

Some of the Reasons Why the Salaf Would Read the Qurʾān

Farwah b. Nawfal said, “I was a neighbour of Khabbāb, may Allāh be pleased with him, so we went to the masjid and he took hold of my hand and said, “Gain closeness to Allāh with whatever you are able to do, for indeed you will not gain closeness through something more beloved to Allāh than His own Speech” [Shuʿab al-Īmān by al-Bayhaqī (1463)].

Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68), may Allāh be pleased with them both, said, “Allāh has guaranteed the one who follows the Qurʾān that he will not become misguided in this world nor suffer in the next life” he then recited: {so whoever follows My guidance will neither go astray nor suffer} [al-Muṣannaf (7/136)].

ʿAmr b. Murrah said, “I hate to pass by a parable of the Qurʾān and not know it because Allāh the Exalted says {and these are parables which we have given to people, and only the knowledgeable comprehend them}” [Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ (5/95)].

Sufyān b. ʿUyaynah said, “You will not reach the peak of this matter until nothing is more beloved to you than Allāh, and whoever loves the Qurʾān surely loves Allāh – [so] understand what has been said to you” [Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ (7/278)].

The Companion ʿUrwah b. al-Jaʿd al-Bāriqī said, “Love of Allāh the Mighty and Exalted is love of the Qurʾān, and love of the Messenger is to act upon his Sunnah” [Istinshāq Nasīm al-Uns by Ibn Rajab (68)].

Mālik b. Dīnār used to say, “Whoever does not feel a sense of companionship in the speech of Allāh but does with the speech of creation; then indeed his knowledge has diminished, his heart has become blind and he has wasted his life” [Rawḍat al-ʿUqalāʾ (85)].

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said, “Reciting the Qurʾān in the commanded manner causes strong īmān and increases it in certainty, tranquillity and cure” [Majmūʿ al-Fatāwá (7: 283)].

The Time of Day They Would Recite the Qurʾān

Anas b. Mālik said, “ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān’s wife said, when they killed him, ‘You have killed him, he was someone who would spend the night awake with the Qurʾān’” [Ḥilyat-ul-Awliyāʾ (1/57)].

Thābit al-Bunānī said, that his teacher Ibn Abī Laylah would pray Fajr, open up his muṣḥaf and read until sunrise [Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (4: 265)].

How They Would Recite the Qurʾān

Ṭalq said, “The person with the best voice [in reciting] the Qurʾān is the one who, when he recites it, you see that he has khashyah (reverential fear) of Allāh the Almighty and Exalted” [al-Zuhd by Imām Aḥmad (217)].

Isḥāq b. Ibrāhīm said, “The recitation of al-Fuḍayl b. ʿIyāḍ was solemn, slow and deliberate as though he was addressing a person, and when he passed by a verse mentioning Paradise, he would continuously repeat it” [Ṣifat al-Ṣafwah (2: 466)].

The Amount of Qurʾān They Would Recite

ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd (d. 32) said, “Indeed these hearts are vessels so busy them with the Qurʾān, and do not busy them with anything besides it” [al-Muṣannaf (7/106)].

ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd said, “Study the Qurʾān perpetually” [Shuʿab al-Īmān by al-Bayhaqī (2028)].

Nāfiʿ was asked what Ibn ʿUmar would do in his house. He said, “You will not be able to do it; ablution for every prayer and the muṣḥaf in between them” [Ṭabaqāt Ibn Saʿd (4/170)].

Ibn Wahb said that the sister of Mālik b. Dīnār was asked what Mālik used to preoccupy himself with at home. She said, “The muṣḥaf and recitation.” [Siyar, (8: 111)].

Abū ʿAbd Allāh b. Bishr said, “Abū Sahl al-Qaṭṭān was our neighbour, and he used to perpetually pray the night and recite, and because of his abundant study of it, the Qurʾān became as though it was right in front of his eyes” [Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (15/521)].

Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī used to recite 1,000 verses every single night [Musnad Ibn al-Jaʿd (74)].

There are 6,236 verses in the Qurʾān which means al-Sabīʿī completed reciting the Qurʾān every 6 nights or so.

ʿUrwah b. al-Zubayr would read a quarter of the Qurʾān every single day and he would pray the night reciting it. The only night he did not complete his portion was the night his leg was amputated. He then returned to completing his portion the following night [Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ (2: 178)].

The Qurʾān is divided into 30 parts (ajzāʾ sing. juzʾ). A quarter of the Qurʾān is therefore 7 ½ parts (ajzāʾ). Almost nothing would stop the Salaf from completing their daily portion of Qurʾān recitation. They would recite their portion from the muṣḥaf and not necessarily from their memories:

ʿUrwah b. al-Zubayr used to recite a quarter of the Qurʾān every single day by looking at his muṣḥaf [Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (4/414)].

Muḥammad b. al-Muthanná said, “I stayed one night with Ibn ʿUlayyah and he read a third of the Qurʾān” [Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (9/116)].

Quality as Well as Quantity

A man once told the leading Imām of ḥadīth, ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Mubārak (d. 181) that he read the whole Qurʾān in one night. Ibn al-Mubārak responded that he knew a man who spent the whole night repeating {Competition for piling up worldly things distracts you [al-Takāthur]} until the break of dawn, not being able to go beyond it – he was referring to himself [Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (8: 397)].

ʿAbd Allāh b. Wahb said that he heard Muḥammad b. Kaʿb al-Quradhī say: “For me to recite {When the earth is shaken [al-Zalzalah]} and al-Qāriʿah during the night until the morning, and not add to them, and repeat them both and ponder over them, is more beloved to me than reading the Qurʾān quickly” [Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ (3: 214)].

al-Ḥasan took an oath by Allāh and said, “By Allāh O son of Ādam, if you read the Qurʾān and believed in it, your sadness in this dunyá would surely have been long, your fear in this dunyá would surely have been severe and your weeping in this dunyá would surely have been much” [Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ (2: 133)].

How Often They Would Recite the Qurʾān

ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd said, “Read the Qurʾān in seven days and do not read it in less than three days, and let a man, during his day and night, maintain a portion [of recitation of the Qurʾān]” [Shuʿab al-Īmān by al-Bayhaqī (2173)].

Meaning: recite the Qurʾān every day.

How Often They Would Complete the Qurʾān

Muḥammad b. Khālid narrated that Khaythamah used to complete reciting the Qurʾān in three days [Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ (4/115)].

Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh said, “Maʿrūf b. Wāṣil used to complete the Qurʾān every three days when travelling and resident” [Ṣifat al-Ṣafwah (2/694)].

Qatādah used to complete the Qurʾān in seven days, and when Ramaḍān would come, he would complete it every three days [Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (8/490)].

ʿAmr b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥayrīz said, “My grandfather used to complete reciting the Qurʾān every week” [Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (4/495)].

Ubayy b. Kaʿb, may Allāh be pleased with him, said, “Indeed we read (the Qurʾān) in eight nights” [al-Ṭabaqāt (6/60)].

Ḥusayn al-ʿAnqarī said, “When Ibn Idrīs was dying, his daughter cried and so he said, “Do not cry my dear daughter for the Qurʾān was completed in this house 4,000 times” [Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (8/44)].

ʿAbd Allāh b. Idrīs lived for 72 years. He was born in the year 120 and died in the year 192. If we were to say for instance that he recited the Qurʾān for 50 years, it means he completed reading the Qurʾān 80 times a year.

How They Would Prepare to Recite the Qurʾān

The Senior-Tābiʿī al-Shaʿbī (d. 109) who met over 500 Companions, said, “When you read the Qurʾān, cause your heart to understand it and cause your ears to listen to it” [Shuʿab al-Īmān by al-Bayhaqī (1927)].

How They Would Be During the Recitation of the Qurʾān

Nāfiʿ said that, “When Ibn ʿUmar read the Qurʾān he disliked being spoken to, or that he would not speak until he had completed what he wanted” [al-Muṣannaf (7/119)].

Nāfiʿ said, “When Ibn ʿUmar would recite in his prayer and would pass by a verse mentioning Jannah, he would stop and ask Allāh for Jannah, supplicate and cry. When he would pass by a verse mentioning the Fire, he would stop, supplicate and seek forgiveness from Allāh the Almighty and Exalted” [al-Zuhd of Aḥmad (241)].

Nāfiʿ said, “When Ibn ʿUmar would read this verse: {Has the time not yet come for the hearts of the beleivers to be humbled at the remembrance of Allāh} he would cry until he would be overwhelmed with crying” [al-Muṣannaf (7/136)].

Ibn Abī Mulaykah (d. 117) said, “I accompanied Ibn ʿAbbās from Makkah to al-Madīnah, when he alighted, he would stand in prayer for half of the night. Ayyūb said, “How was his recitation?” He replied, “He recited, {And with the throes of death will come the truth. This is what you were trying to escape!} [Qāf (50): 19] and he would recite it slowly and sob profusely” [Shuʿab al-Īmān of al-Bayhaqī (2028)].

Muḥammad b. Juḥādah asked the slave-girl of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī what she saw from him. She replied, “I saw him open the muṣḥaf and then I saw his eyes flow with tears” [Shuʿab al-Īmān of al-Bayhaqī (2043)].

Ibrāhīm al-Taymī said, “I reached 60 disciples of ʿAbd Allāh [b. Masʿūd] in this masjid of ours, and the youngest of them was al-Ḥārith b. Suwayd, I heard him reciting {When the earth is shaken} until he reached {So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it. And whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it}, he cried and then said, “Indeed this counting is severe” [al-Zuhd al-Kabīr (324)].

The Sweetness of the Qurʾān

One of them would say to himself, “O soul, read the Qurʾān as though you are hearing it from Allāh when He spoke it” and this is when the sweetness came [Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (8: 180)].

al-Ḥasan said, “Seek out sweetness in three: in prayer, in the Qurʾān and in dhikr (remembering Allāh). If you find it, continue and receive glad tidings, but if you do not find it, know that your door is closed” [Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ (6/171)].

Implementing the Qurʾān

Mujāhid said, “Ibn ʿUmar was praying and reached the verse {you will not attain piety until you spend from what you love} and so while he was praying, he freed a slave-girl of his he had wanted to marry” [al-Zuhd by Imām Aḥmad (242)].

And all praise is due to Allāh, may His praise and protection be upon our Prophet Muḥammad, and upon his family and his Companions.