Allamah Muhaddith Faqeeh Abd al-Hayy al-Laknawi on One-Night Khatms
\nA question often arises about what the people today frequently do on the 27th night or another night of Ramad\u0101n. They adorn the masjid with carpets, hang many lamps and appoint huff\u0101z that are quick in their recitation and have good retention to complete the whole Qur’\u0101n in a single night during Sal\u0101t al-Tar\u0101w\u012bh. Hence, one leads after another, and each of them recites as much as is possible for him in two or more rak’ats until the khatm is completed close to dawn or suh\u016br time in accordance with the speed of the reciters. They call it khatm shab\u012bnah. Is this permissible or not?
\nI answered that the completion of the Qur’\u0101n itself in one night is encouraged, but the attachment of reprehensible matters to it is reprehensible. Its elaboration is that there are some things that are good and some which are reprehensible in what they are accustomed to and believe to be good:
\nFirst, the completion of the Qur’\u0101n in one night, which is a wonderful thing, practised by many of the Salaf. In fact, some of them completed it in a single rak’ah!
\nSecond, speedy recitation, as they make the recitation fast, to the point that the letters do not emerge from their [correct] points of emergence, let alone contemplation (tadabbur) and measured reading (tart\u012bl)! This is something reprehensible, as Ibn Ab\u012b D\u0101w\u016bd transmitted from Muslim ibn Mikhr\u0101q that he said: I said to ‘\u0100’ishah that there are some people of whom one recites the [entire] Qur’\u0101n twice or thrice in one night. She said: “They recited and did not recite! I would stand with the Messenger of All\u0101h one night and he recited al-Baqarah, \u0100l-‘Imr\u0101n and al-Nis\u0101’ and he did not pass by a verse in which is glad-tidings but he supplicated and expressed desire, nor by a verse in which is warning except he supplicated and sought refuge.”
\nIn fact, amongst them are some who make it so fast that he leaves out verses and one listening to him is unable to correct him due to the speed of his recitation. In fact, some of them do not correct him because it would disrupt his speed. Is there anything more reprehensible than this?! I saw something even worse than this, which is that when the h\u0101fiz completes the recitation, the listeners stretch their tongues with praise of him, saying, “How fast was your recitation!”, “How beautiful was your voice!” etc., and they do not warn him against what he did, of leaving out measured reading and omitting verses.
\nThird, the laziness of the listeners, as when the h\u0101fiz stands for recitation, they [sit down and] wait until the ruk\u016b’ of the first rak’ah, and only when he intends to go down to ruk\u016b’ do they join in with him. It is right to say about them: “And when they stand for Sal\u0101h, they stand up lazily”. (4:142)
\nFourth, creating antipathy in the muqtadis, as when the huff\u0101z lengthen the recitation it causes difficulty on those who join him. Thus, some of them sit and some of them alternate between their feet and some of them break the rak’ah and listen while sitting down outside the Sal\u0101h. What evil is greater than this?! This is why the fuqah\u0101’ have expressly said that one ought to recite in Tar\u0101w\u012bh the amount that is not burdensome on them.
\nFifth, lighting many candles above need, which is a matter of frivolity and play which must be avoided, as the fuqah\u0101’ have expressly stated in many places. These and their likes are evils which take out the good thing to the level of reprehensibility. How many a good thing is rendered reprehensible by the adjoining of a [blameworthy] attachment?! And All\u0101h knows best the truth.
\nIq\u0101mat al-Hujjah ‘al\u0101 anna l-Ikth\u0101r fi l-Ta’abbud laysa bi Bid’ah, pp. 154-6 Translated by Maulana Zameelur Rahman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Allamah Muhaddith Faqeeh Abd al-Hayy al-Laknawi on One-Night Khatms A question often arises about what the people today frequently do on the 27th night or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sharhul-hadith","category-sunan-wa-nawaafil","wpcat-19-id","wpcat-68-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}