Question:
Salaam
Is it jaiz to recite Qur’an loud in gatherings such as Khatam-e-Khawajagan. Here everyone reads the Qur’an loud together. Is that jaiz or is it Haram. Because I have read it is haraam https://islamqa.info/en/154213.
Jazakallah.
Answer:
Alaykum Salam.
(i) The questioner appears not to have read carefully, as the URL cited does not actually dare say that reading the Qur’an aloud in unison is haram.
(ii) The URL only makes the (false) claim that reading the Qur’an aloud in unison “is a bid‘ah (innovation) that has been introduced into the religion and was not the practice of the righteous early generations. … It was not known among them that they would remember Allah, may He be exalted, by reciting dhikr in unison or that they read or recited the Qur’aan in unison.”
The above claim is not based on knowledge in Islam. It is one of several false claims that URL makes!
Imam al-Nawawi (Allah have mercy on him) in al-Tibyan stated the exact contrary. He said (transl. Musa Furber):
[فصل] في استحباب قراءة الجماعة مجتمعين وفضل القارئين من الجماعة والسامعين وبيان فضيلة من جمعهم عليها وحرضهم وندبهم إليها] الثواب المشترك إعلم أن قراءة الجماعة مجتمعين مستحبة بالدلائل الظاهرة وأفعال السلف والخلف المتظاهرة
… والأحاديث في هذا كثيرة
<<[Section:] A group reciting together is recommended. Reciting and listening in a group is superior. The reward of the one who gathered them for it, encouraged them, and recommend it to them. Know that a group reciting together is recommended, according to obvious evidence and according to the actions of the pure Salaf and Khalaf…. The hadiths concerning this are many.>>
The latter shows that he understood the very same hadiths adduced by that URL as supporting recitation in unison, NOT precluding it, contrary to their barefaced, irreligious misinterpretation. The latter misguided method typifies the main modern school of innovation whose inventors want to stop all kinds of `ibada on false grounds.
Then al-Nawawi said:
<وروى ابن أبي داود أن أبا الدرداء رضي الله عنه كان يدرس القرآن معه نفر يقرؤون جميعا وروى ابن أبي داود فعل الدراسة مجتمعين عن جماعات من أفاضل السلف والخلف وقضاة المتقدمين وروى ابن أبي داود أن أبا الدرداء رضي الله عنه كان يدرس القرآن معه نفر يقرؤون جميعا وروى ابن أبي داود فعل الدراسة مجتمعين عن جماعات من أفاضل السلف والخلف وقضاة المتقدمين وعن حسان بن عطية والأوزاعي أنهما قالا أول من أحدث الدراسة في مسجد دمشق هشام بن إسماعيل في مقدمته على عبد الملك وأما ما روى ابن أبي داود عن الضحاك بن عبد الرحمن بن عرزب أنه أنكر هذه الدراسة وقال ما رأيت ولا سمعت وقد أدركت أصحاب رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: يعني ما رأيت أحدأ فعلها وعن وهب قال قلت لمالك أرأيت القوم يجتمعون
فيقرؤون جميعا سورة واحدة حتى يختموها فأنكر ذلك وعابه وقال ليس هكذا تصنع الناس إنما كان يقرأ الرجل على الآخر يعرضة فهذا الانكار منهما مخالف لما عليه السلف والخلف ولما يقتضيه الدليل فهو متروك والاعتماد على ما تقدم من استحبابها
<<Ibn Abi Dawud related that Abu Darda (Allah be well pleased with him) would study the Qur’an with a group, all of them reciting together. The superiority of studying gathered together is related from groups of the superior Salaf, Khalaf, and the judges of the early generations. Hassan bin ‘Atiya and Al-Awza’i both said: “The first one to initiate studies in Damascus’ mosque is Hisham bin Isma’il on his arrival to `Abd Al-Malik .” As for what Ibn Abi Dawud related from al-Dahhak bin `Abd Al-Rahman bin ‘Arzab that he censured these studies and said: “I did not see [it] and I did not hear [it], and I have met the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace)”—it
means: I did not see anyone do this. And Ibn Wahb said: “I said to Malik: ‘What do you think about a people gathering and reading a single chapter together until they finish it?’ He rejected this and censured it. He said: ‘this is not how people do it. It was only that one man would recite it to another.’” This denial of theirs is contrary to the actions of the Salaf and Khalaf, and contrary to what the evidence implies. So it is abandoned and what preceded—its being recommended —is relied upon.”>>
(iii) The URL cites Ahmad b. Taymiyya as saying that it is better to recite the Qur’an softly. However, Imam al-Nawawi said in the Tibyan, “Know that MANY HADITHS IN THE SAHIH AND OTHER SOURCES show the recommendability of raising one’s voice when reciting.”
إعلم أنه جاء أحاديث كثيرة في الصحيح وغيره دالة على استحباب رفع الصوت بالقراءة
His conclusion is that is it better, because there is more reward as it entails more effort. He then states, “As for the reports from the Companions and Successors — of their sayings and acts — to that effect, they are more numerous than can be delimited and too well-known to need mention.”
وأما الآثار عن الصحابة والتابعين من أقوالهم وأفعالهم فأكثر من أن تحصر وأشهر من أن تذكر
Further, he said the preference of softness is only for those who fear pride and self-display. Thus it is not a matter of universal prohibition whatsoever.
(iv) Even if one were to hypothetically consider the false claim by the above-mentioned URL that loud recitation of the Qur’an in unison is a bid`a, it would still be fine since Imam al-Shafi`i (may Allah be well-pleased with him) said that bid`a is of two types, praiseworthy and blameworthy, and the massive majority of the scholars in Islam follow
him in that principle. Therefore even assuming that it is a bid`a (which it is not), it would be a praiseworthy bid`a practiced by the Umma since the time of Abu al-Darda’, one of the major Qur’an teachers among the Sahaba.
As for the reply concerning their claims about dhikr in unison, see the eShaykh Post “Zikr in Jamaah“.
May Allah guide you and us and keep us on the way of the real Salaf and Khalaf, free from distortion and misguidance.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
