Aslam

said: O My servant, are you not ashamed of Me? If a letter from your friend comes to you in your journey, you at once come toa side of the road and read with an attentive mind every word and sentence of it and you do not omit anything from it. but I sent My Book to you and I am seeing with what attentive mind you are reading it and how you have followed its commands and prohibitions. But you have turned your face from it. O My servant, have you considered it more mean than your friend's letter? I am present to you. I am speaking with you but you have turned your mind from Me. Have I become more mean to you than your friend?

SECTION 2 EXTERNAL RULES OF RECITING THE QURAN

There are ten external rules for the recitation of the Quran.

(1) After ablution, face the Ka'ba without showing pride in sitting with head downwards just like the sitting of a student before his teacher. The best way of Quran reading is in prayer standing in a mosque. God says: They remember God standing, sitting and lying on their sides and ponder over the creations of the heaven and earth. In this verse, every condition has been said in order of excellence-first standing, then sitting and then lying state. Hazrat Ali said: If a man recites a portion of the Quran in prayer standing, one hundred rewards are written for him for every word. If a man recites a portion of the Quran sitting in prayer, fifty rewards are written for him for every word. If a man reads the Quran outside the prayer with ablution, twenty five rewards are written for him for every word. If a man reads the Quran without ablution, ten rewards are written for him for every word. Hazrat Abu Zarr Geffari said: To make much prostration at day time and to pray long at night are better.

(2) THE QUANTITY OF QURAN RECITING: There are different rules for the readers about the quantity of the recitations of the Quran. Some finish the whole Quran in a day and a night, some twice, some thrice and some once in a month.
The best way is what the Prophet said in this Hadis: He who finishes the Quran within less time than three days cannot gain the knowledge of the rules of religion as hasty reading cannot clearly be recited. Hazrat Ayesha said of a man who recited the

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Quran hastily: This man neither recites the Quran, nor remains silent. The Prophet ordered Abdullah-b-Amr to finish the Quran once a week. Some of the companions followed this rule. They were Hzrats Osman, Zaid- b-Sabet, Ibn Masud, Obai-b-Ka'ab and others. So there are several modes of finishing the Quran, (1) once in a day and a night, (2) once in a month, (3) once in a week with seven equal portions a day.