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in salat. He recited 20 ayahs in
every rak‘a until he completed the
Qur’an. At suhur time, he recited
between one third to one half of the
Qur’an, completing one Qur’an in
suhur every three days. In the day,
he completed one Qur’an every day
and another at the time of iftar every
night. He would say, ‘For every khatm
(completion), is one accepted du‘a’”
(Tareekh Baghdad; 2/322).
Ibrahim Nakhai (95-6 A.H.) was a
tabi‘, muhaddith, and a student of
Ayesha, Muadh bin Jabal, and other
illustrious Sahaba l. He completed
one Qur’an every night. Qatada (117
A.H.), another tabi‘ and muhaddith,
completed one Qur’an every three
nights but once every night in the
last ten days of Ramadan. Aswad
(75 A.H.), another great tabi‘ and
muhaddith, completed one Qur’an
every two nights throughout the
month of Ramadan (Majalis Shahr
Ramadan; 1/30). Ali al-Azdi was a
famous tabi‘. Mujahid narrates that
he also completed one Qur’an every
night (Tahdheeb al-Kamal; 21:42). And
even if we have only a few records
of the Ramadan devotions of the
predecessors, it is enough to certify
that devotion to recitation of Qur’an
was the rule for the mujtahids and
scholars in the month of Ramadan.
It was almost systematic in the way
they neatly folded away their fields
and passions on to a shelf like a pair
of clothes, dismissed their massive
gatherings, and freed themselves of
all work and preoccupation that tied
them up to get down to the business
of recitation of Qur’an. Imam Malik
(179 A.H.), the great teacher of hadith
and author of the al-Muwatta,
dismissed the year round majalis
(gatherings) of hadith in Masjid
al-Nabawi and ‘turned to recitation
of Qur’an from the Mus-haf’ (al-
Fiqh al-Ad‘iya wa al-Adhkar; 1/72).
The famous jurist and muhaddith
of Kufa, Sufyan Thaur (97 A.H.),
postponed all litanies and devotions
in Ramadan also to immerse himself
in recitation of Qur’an (Nida’
al-Rayyan fi fiqh al-Saum wa Fadl
Ramadan; 1/199). This legacy was
perpetuated throughout the centuries
in this Umma and continues to be
observed, even in our time, among
the people of knowledge. In most
recent times, the biographies of
some of the greatest muhaddithun
and mufassirun from Deoband, in
the last century, are testimony to the
uninterrupted transmission of this
legacy throughout the centuries.
The most recent of the scholars of
Deoband, the renowned muhaddith
Shaykh al-hadith Muhammad
Zakariyya (1898-1982 A.D.) completed
30 Qur’an every Ramadan. Below is a
breakdown of his daily schedule from
the book Ramadan of Shaykh al-Hadith
and our Elders:
Six juz after Maghrib; approximately
three juz in tarawih; sleep for three
and a half hours, then six juz in
tahajjud; pray Fajr at the earliest time
then sleep until 9:30 a.m.; six juz in
Duha; letter-reading and writing until
Zuhr; three juz in Sunna of Zuhr;
reciting eight juz from Qur’an after
Zuhr; after Asr, reciting to Yahya,
combined: 35 juz. On average, 32 juz
(p.17).
The father of Deoband, Maulana
Rashid Gangohi’s (1906 A.D.), routine
includes a short trip he made to his
home from the masjid after Maghrib.
The biographer notes, “After nawafil,
he completed many juz on his
commute home and even while he
sat to eat” (Ramadan of Shaykh al-
Hadith and Our Elders; p. 98). I think
that suffices to calculate how much
Qur’an he recited throughout the
day and how many he completed in
Ramadan. Maulana Qasim Nanautawi
(1831-1879 A.D), the founder of the
school of Deoband, memorized the
whole Qur’an in Ramadan and his
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