The Prophet's (Sallallahu ‘Alayhi wa Sallam) Guidance in Reciting the Qur'an

He  would not fail to recite his regular a Hizb, [I] and his recitation was slow and pleasant, letter by letter; and he would cut of his recitation at the end of each Verse and he would prolong it when he recited Madd letters, [2]so he would prolong the recitation of the words: Ar·Rahman and Ar·Raheem. He would seek refuge with Allah at the start·
of his recitation, saying:


and sometimes, he might say:


And he used to seek refuge before the recitation. He  used to love to listen to the Qur'an recited by someone else and he commanded Ibn Mas'ud  to recite and he did so while the Prophet  listened and he was so humbled by listening to his recitation, that his eyes filled with tears. He would recite while standing, while sitting, while lying down, while a state of ritual purity, having performed ablution and in a state of ritual impurity, but not whilst he was Junub.[4] He would recite it in a clear, pleasant tone and sometimes, he would cause his voice to reverberate; Ibn Al-Mughaffal reported that he made it reverberate three times thus: "Aa-aa-aa" - this was reported by A-lBukhari.

When this is combined with the words of the Prophet  : "Beautify the Qur'an with your voices," [5] -and his  words: "Allah does not listen to a Prophet as He listens to a Prophet who recites the Qur'an in a pleasant tone,"[6] one can see that this reverberation was deliberate on his part, not due to the shaking of his she-camel. If it were not the case, Ibn Al-Mughaffal would not have reported that it was voluntary, in order that he be emulated, for he said: "He used to cause his voice to reverberate during his recitation." And reciting pleasantly and slowly (Taghanni) is of two types:

The first: That which is entailed by reciting naturally, without effort; this is permissible, even though he embellished his natural voice by making it beautiful, as Abu Mus a Al-Ash' ari  said to the Prophet "If I had known that you were listening, I would have beautified my recitation for you."[7] This is what the Salaf used to do and all of l he evidences prove it.

The second: That which is artificial and is the product of learning, as one learns to sing using all types of invented airs and meters, which were disliked by the Salaf and the evidences of its being disliked are concerning this.




[l]Hizb: On sixtieth part of the Qur'an
[2] Madd letters: Long vowels (Alif Wauw and Ya') whose pronunciation is drawn out when recited in the Qur' an.
[3] Narrated by Ahmad, Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah and declared authentic by Ibn Hibban and A!-Hakim and Az-Zahabi confirmed this.
[4] Junub: In a state of major ritual impurity, following sexual intercourse or nocturnal emission; in such a state, a person is required to perform Ghusl (washing of the whole body).
[5] Narrated by Al-Bukhari, An-Nas'i, Ibn Majah, Abu Dawud, Ahmad and Ad-Darimi.
[6] Narrated by Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawfid and An-Nasa'i.
[7] This was mentioned by Al-Haithami in 'Al-Majma" on the authority of Abu Musa  and he said: "Narrated by Abu Ya'la; and in it (i.e. its Sanad) Is Khalid Ibn Nafi' Al-Ash'ari and he is weak. Ibn Hajr mentions something similar on the authority of Anas  with a chain of narrators which conforms to the conditions laid down by Imam Muslim.

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