Muslims must know the Qur'an;
Rewards of Qur'an recitation;
The rank of Hafiz-e-Qur'an;
Beautiful recitation encouraged;
Bismillah (In the Name of Allah);
The merits of Surah al-Fatihah;
The merits of Ayatul Kursi;
The merits of the last two verses of Surah al-Baqarah;
The merits of Surah al-Ikhlas;
The merits of Surah al-Falaq and Surah an-Nas;
The merits of Surah al-Mulk;
The compilation of the Qur'an;
The language and dialect of the Qur'an;
The Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them) knew the Qur'an;
The Prophet (may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him) lived according to the Qur'an
The Holy Qur'an
Muslims must know the Qur'an
Hadrat Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) reported Allah's Messenger (May the blessings of Allah be with him) as saying, "Anyone who has nothing of the Qur'an within him is like a ruined house." (Tirmidhi and Darimi)
Rewards of Qur'an Recitation
Mother of faithful believers, Hadrat Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) reported Allah's Messanger (may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him) as saying, "One who is skilled in the Qur'an is associated with noble, upright recording angels; and he who falters when reciting the Qur'an and finds it difficult, will have a double reward." (Bukhari and Muslim)
Hadrat Abdullah Ibn-e-Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet (may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him) said, "Whosoever reads one letter of the Book of Allah is credited with one blessing and one blessing is equal to tenfold in its reward. I do not say that alif laam meem is one letter, but alif is one letter, lam is one letter. and meem is one letter. (Tirmidhi)
The Rank of Hafiz-e-Qur'an
Hadrat Abdullah Ibn-e-Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Prophet (may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him) said: "On the Day of Judgement it will be said to the Man of Qur'an (that is, Qur'an Hafiz) 'Go on reciting the Qur'an and continue ascending the storeys of Paradise and recite as you had been reciting in worldly life; your final abode will be where you reach at the time of the last verse of your recitation." (Ahmad)
Beautiful Recitation encouraged
Hadrat Al-Bara' bin Azib (may Allah be pleased with him) reported Allah's Messenger (may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him) as saying, "Beautify the Qur'an with your voices." (Ahmad, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, Darimi)
Bismillah (In the Name of Allah) Hadrat Abdullah Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said that Allah's Messenger (May the blessings of Allah be with him) did not know where surahs (chapters) were to be separated till 'In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful," was sent down. (Abu Dawud)
The merits of Surah al-Fatihah Narrated Hadrat Abu Sa'id bin Al-Mu'alla: (may Allah be pleased with him): While I was praying in the Mosque, Allah's Messenger (May the blessings of Allah be with him) called me but I did not respond to him. Later I said, "O Allah's Messenger! I was praying." He said, "Didn't Allah say'-
'Give your response to Allah (by obeying Him) and to his Messenger when he calls you'." (8:24)
He then said to me, "I will teach you a Sura which is the greatest Sura in the Qur'an, before you leave the Mosque." Then he got hold of my hand, and when he intended to leave (the Mosque), I said to him, "Didn't you say to me, 'I will teach you a Sura which is the greatest Sura in the Qur'an?' He said, "Al-Hamdu-Lillahi Rabbi-l-'Alamin (i.e. Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds) which is Al-Sab'a Al-Mathani (i.e. seven repeatedly recited Verses) and the Grand Qur'an which has been given to me." (Bukhari)
The merits of Ayatul Kursi:
Hadrat Ubayy bin Ka'b (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Allah's Messenger (May the blessings of Allah be with him) said: O Abu' l -Mundhir, do you know the verse from the Book of Allah which according to you is the greatest? I said: Allah (The Glorified and the Exalted) and His Messenger (May the blessings of Allah be with him) know best. He again said: Abu'l Mundhir, do you know the verse from the Book of Allah which according to you, is the greatest? I said, "Allah, there is no god but He, the Living, the Eternal." Thereupon he struck on my breast and said: May knowledge be pleasant for you, O Abu'l Mundhir! (Muslim)
The merits of the last two verses of Surah Al-Baqarah
Hadrat Abu Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) reported Allah's Messenger (May the blessings of Allah be with him) as saying, "If anyone recites the two verses at the end of surah al-Baqarah at night, they will avert harm from him." (Bukhari and Muslim)
The merits of Surah al-Ikhlas
Hadrat Abu Darda (may Allah be pleased with him) reported Allah's Messenger (May the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) as saying, "Is any of you incapable of reciting a third of the Qur'an in a night?" On being asked how they could recite a third of the Qur'an, he replied, 'Say, He is Allah, One', is equivalent to a third of the Qur'an." (Muslim)
The merits of Surah al-Falaq and Surah an-Nas
Hadrat 'Uqba bin Amir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported Allah's Messenger (May the blessings of Allah be with him) as saying, "What wonderful verses have been sent down to-night! The like of them has never been seen. They are "Say, I seek refuge in the Lord of the Dawn" and say "Say, I seek refuge in the Lord of the people." (Muslim)
The merits of Surah al-Mulk
Hadrat Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) reported Allah's Messenger (May the blessings of Allah be with him) as saying, "A sura in the Qur'an containing thirty verses interceded for a man till his sins were forgiven. It is 'Blessed is He in whose Hand is the Kingdom." (Ahmed, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, an-Nasai and Ibn Majah).
The compilation of the Qur'an
Narrated Hadrat Zaid bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him): Sayyidina Abu Bakr As-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) sent for me when the people of Yamama had been killed (i.e., a number of the Prophet's Companions who fought against Musailama the liar). (I went to him) and found 'Sayyidina Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) sitting with him. Sayyidina Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) then said (to me). "Umar has come to me said: "Casualties were heavy among the Qurra' of the Qur'an (i.e. those who knew the Qur'an by heart) on the day of the Battle of Yamama, and I am afraid that more heavy casualties may talke place among the Qurra' on other battlefields, whereby a large part of the Qur'an may be lost. Therefore I suggest, you (Abu Bakr) order that the Qur'an be collected." I said to 'Sayyidina Umar, 'How can you do something which which Allah's Messenger (may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him) did not do?" Sayyidina Umar said, 'By Allah, that is a good project."
"Sayyidina Umar kept on urging me to accept this proposal till Allah (The Glorified and the Exalted) opened my chest for it and I began to realise the good in the idea which Sayyidina Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) had realized." Then Sayyidina Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said (to me). 'You are a wise young man and we do not have any suspicion about you, and you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Aposte (may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him). So you should search for (the fragmentary scripts of) the Qur'an and collect it (in one book)." By Allah! If they had ordered me to shift one of the mountains, it would not have neen heavier for me that this ordering me to collect the Qur'an. Then I said to Sayyidina Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), "How will you do something which Allah's Messenger (may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him) did not do?"
Sayyidina Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) replied, "By Allah, it is a good project." Sayyidina Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) kept on urging me to accept his idea until Allah (The Glorified and the Exalted) opened my chest for what He had opened the chests of Sayyidina Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyidina Umar (may Allah be pleased with him). So I started looking for the Qur'an and collecting it from (what was written on) palmleaf stalks, thin white stones and also from the men who knew it by heart till I found the last verse of surah at-Tawbah (Repentence) with Hadrat Abu Khuzaimah Al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) and I did not find it with anybody other than him. The verse is:
Verily, there has come unto you a Messenger from amongst yourselves. It grieves him that you should fall into difficulty (till the end of surah at-Tawba 9:128-129)
Then the complete manuscripts (copy) of the Qur'an remained with Sayyidina Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) till he died, then with Sayyidina Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) till the end of his life and then with Hadrat Hafsa (may Allah be pleased with her), the daughter of Sayyidina Umar (may Allah be pleased with him). (Bukhari)
The language and dialect of the Qur'an
Narrated Hadrat Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Khalifa Sayyidina 'Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) ordered Hadrat Zaid bin Thabit, Hadrat Sa'id bin Al-'As, Hadrat 'Abdullah bin Az-Zubair and Hadrat 'Abdur-Rahman bin Al-Harith bin Hisham (may Allah be pleased with them) to write the Qur'an in the form of a book (Mushaf) and said to them. "In case you disagree with Hadrat Zaid bin Thabit (Al-Ansari) regarding any Arabic dialect of Qur'an recitation, then write it in the dialect of the Quraish, for the Qur'an was revealed in this dialect." So they did it. (Bukhari)
The sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them) knew the Qur'an
Hadrat Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said that in the time of Allah's Messenger (may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him) four people knew the whole Qur'an: Hadrat Ubayy bin Ka'b, Hadrat Mu'adh bin Jabal, Hadrat Zaid bin Thabit and Hadrat Abu Zaid (may Allah be pleased with them). Hadrat Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) was asked who Abu Zaid (may Allah be pleased with him) was, and he replied that he was one of his paternal uncles. (Bukhari and Muslim)
Narrated Hadrat 'Abdullah (bin Mas'ud) (may Allah be pleased with him): By Allah (The Glorified and the Exalted) other than Whom none has the right to be worshipped! There is no Sura revealed in Allah's Book but I know at what place it was revealed; and there is no Verse revealed in Allah's Book but I know about whom it was revealed. And if I know that there is somebody who knows Allah's Book better than I, and he is at a place that camels can reach, I would go to him. (Bukhari)
The Prophet (may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him) lived according to the Qur'an Sa'd bin Hisham said: I went to mother of faithful believers, Hadrat 'Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) and said, "Mother of the faithful, tell me about the nature of Allah's Messenger (may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him). She asked, "Do you not recite the Qur'an?" On my replying that I certainly did, she said, "The Prophet's nature was the Qur'an." (Muslim)
