incorporated into the Ramadan
schedule. Once, Ali bin Abi Talib g
came out in the night of Ramadan
and heard recitation of Qur’an and
saw lanterns flickering their light in
different parts of the masjid. He said,
“May Allah fill the grave of Umar g
with light just as he illuminated our
masajid with the Qur’an (Tanbih al-
Ghafileen; Fadl Shahr Ramadan). The
routine was to recite approximately
two hundred ayahs per rak‘a until the
whole night passed in recitation of
Qur’an. One observer says, “People
would lean on their staffs due to the
long standing” (Lata’if Ibn Rajab;
1/169). It is to celebrate this glorious
connection between Qur’an and
Ramadan, the divine initiative to pull
mankind out of the darkness into
the light, to restore him/her to his/
her original state as the khalifa on this
earth that the scholars, muhaddithun,
mufassirun, fuqaha, and scholars of
Islam also devoted their Ramadan
almost exclusively to the recitation
of Qur’an. For clarification,
completion of the Qur’an does not
mean contemplating the higher
meanings of the Qur’an, scientifically
parsing its ayahs, and studying the
various tafsir of Qur’an. Completion
of the Qur’an here simply means
recitation of the Qur’an regardless
of the reciter’s competence in the
language of the Qur’an or the Islamic
sciences that allow us to plumb its
depths. We know this because of the
sheer number of Qur’an that were
completed in the Ramadan schedules
of the predecessors, which preclude
the possibility of any deeper study
of Qur’an and because of sayings of
many of the Salaf like the great Ibn
al-Shihab al-Zuhri (124 A.H.) who
once said, “Ramadan is recitation
of Qur’an” (al-Tamhid fi Ma fi
al-Muwatta min al-Ma‘ani; 6/111)
defining recitation of Qur’an as the
essence of Ramadan.
Many of the Salaf, whose Ramadan
schedules we have cited below, were
It is to celebrate this glorious
connection between Qur’an and
Ramadan, the divine initiative to
pull mankind out of the darkness
into the light,...
pioneers in their fields. Thousands of
students flocked from hundreds of
miles away in an era before modern
transportation to study under them.
The only exception to that was the
month of Ramadan when the masters
dismissed all classes on hadith, fiqh,
or any other field, to avail every
opportunity to recite Qur’an. Much
of the schedule was changed in
Ramadan during that blessed era to
grant more time to the recitation of
Qur’an. For example, it was routine
for the Salaf to delay Isha in Ramadan
to at least one fourth of the night so
that reciters could complete their
Qur’an (Shua‘b al-Iman; 3/523). Isha,
in that case, was the buffer between
the completion of one Qur’an and
the beginning of another, which
usually began at tahajjud time. Some
even delayed breaking their fast until
they completed the Qur’an like Sa‘d
bin Ibrahim, the grandson of Abdul
Rahman bin al-Auf g, who would
delay iftar on the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th,
and 29th of Ramadan to complete his
Qur’an (Tareekh Dimashq; 20/214).
Below are the archetypal routines
of some of the Akabir that set the
precedent for this Umma on setting
our devotional Ramadan routine
around recitation of Qur’an.
Imam Abu Hanifa (150 A.H.) was a
theologian and the father of Islamic
jurisprudence, most renowned for
the legal rulings and principles that
evolved into his school of thought.
The discourses and gatherings where
these rulings were formulated and
promulgated took place almost
around the clock, in the masjid of
Kufa, with breaks only at salat times
(the observer, who took note of this
daily routine, eventually wondered if
Imam Abu Hanifa ever rested (Tabyid
al-Sahifa). The fact that Imam Hanifa
completed 61 Qur’an every Ramadan
(Akhbar Abi Hanifah wa As-habihi;
1/55), one in the night, one in the
day, and one in tarawih, indicates
that these gatherings were formally
cancelled in Ramadan to dedicate the
nights and days of the holy month
to the recitation of Qur’an. He sets a
good example of the single-minded
devotion to which the predecessors
completed the Qur’an in the month
of Ramadan.
The second greatest imam, Imam
Shafi‘i (204 A.H.), completed
60 Qur’an every Ramadan. Ibn
Kathir glorifies Imam Shafi in the
introduction to his tafsir and says,
“Imam Shafi‘ completed one Qur’an
in the day and one in the night”
(Muqaddama of Ibn Kathir; 1/85).
But these rigorous routines were not
limited to the fuqaha. Musabbih bin
Sa‘eed observed Imam Bukhari’s (256
A.H.) routine for Ramadan, “On the
first night of Ramadan, Muhammad
bin Ismael Bukhari gathered all his
companions and would lead them
18 March - April 2020 | AL-MADINAH