Virtues of Reading the Quran

Of all the companions a believer can choose for his days and nights, none repays the companionship like the Book of Allah. The Quran is not a book to be admired on a shelf. It is a book to be recited — in the prayer, in the quiet hours of the night, in Ramadan and outside it — and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ described, in a handful of vivid and authentic reports, exactly what awaits the person who keeps returning to its verses.

Those descriptions are remarkably concrete. The Quran will not simply be a record of good deeds on the Day of Resurrection; it will come and plead for its readers. The fluent reciter will stand in the company of angels, while the reader who stumbles over the words and finds them hard is not left behind but given two rewards. And the believer who recites is given a place in one of the most beautiful likenesses the Prophet ﷺ ever drew: a fruit whose taste is sweet and whose fragrance spreads to everyone around him.

This article gathers those reports exactly as preserved in Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari: the intercession of the Quran, the special rank of the two longest surahs, the dignity of the skilled reciter, the doubled reward of the struggling one, and the parable of the citron, the date, the sweet basil and the colocynth. Together they answer a simple question from every side: why should a believer read the Quran, and keep reading it, for the whole of his life?

1. The Quran Will Come as an Intercessor for Its Readers

The greatest promise made to the reader of the Quran is not about this world at all. Abu Umama reported that he heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ make a promise about the most desperate day a human being will ever face:

“Recite the Qur’an, for on the Day of Resurrection it will come as an intercessor for those who recite It” (Sahih Muslim 804a — Sahih)

An intercessor is one who speaks on behalf of another — who steps forward, when a person stands in need of help, and pleads his case. The Prophet ﷺ tells us that the Quran itself will do this for “those who recite it.” The wording matters: the promise is attached not to owning the Book, nor to honouring it from a distance, but to reciting it. The one who gave the Quran his voice and his time in this world will find, on the Day when every soul is anxious for itself, that the words he used to read have come to stand beside him.

This reframes what recitation is. Every page read is not a duty discharged and forgotten; it is the building of a relationship with a witness who will appear on the reader’s side. The verses a person recited in his home, in the mosque, in the small minutes between other tasks — these are the verses that will come on that Day, in his favour.

It also explains why the command in the narration is a simple, direct one: “Recite the Qur’an.” No quantity is set, no elite level of fluency is demanded. The door opened by this promise is the door of recitation itself — and as the reports below show, Allah and His Messenger ﷺ made that door wide enough for the master of tajwid and for the beginner who can barely join the letters.

2. The Two Bright Ones: Al-Baqarah and Aal-e-Imran

Within the same narration, the Prophet ﷺ then singled out the two longest surahs of the Quran for an honour of their own. Abu Umama’s report continues:

“Recite the two bright ones, al-Baqara and Surah Al ‘Imran, for on the Day of Resurrection they will come as two clouds or two shades, or two flocks of birds in ranks, pleading for those who recite them” (Sahih Muslim 804a — Sahih)

The two surahs are called “the two bright ones” — radiant, shining ones. And the picture of their coming is drawn in three images, each of which is an image of protection. Two clouds or two shades: on a day of scorching nearness and distress, they come as shade comes to a traveller in the desert sun. Or two flocks of birds in ranks: row upon row, an ordered host arriving together. And their purpose is stated plainly — “pleading for those who recite them.”

Consider what this means for the reader who takes up Surah Al-Baqarah, all 286 verses of it, and then Aal-e-Imran after it. These are long commitments. They are not finished in a sitting, and they ask for weeks of steady return. The narration tells such a reader what his perseverance looks like from the other side of death: the surahs he worked through, verse by verse, will arrive as visible shelter and as advocates pleading his case. Length, here, is not a burden but a measure of the shade being prepared.

The general promise of the first section — the Quran as intercessor — is thus given a particular, pictorial form for these two surahs. The whole Book will come for its readers; these two will come in a form the Prophet ﷺ wanted us to be able to picture, so that the reader working slowly through them in this world knows what is coming for him in the next.

3. Surah Al-Baqarah: A Blessing to Take, a Loss to Leave

The narration then returns to Surah Al-Baqarah alone, with words that turn recitation into a decision every believer must make — to take the surah up, or to give it up:

“Recite Surah al-Baqara, for to take recourse to it is a blessing and to give it up is a cause of grief, and the magicians cannot confront it” (Sahih Muslim 804a — Sahih)

“To take recourse to it is a blessing” — holding to this surah, reciting it and living with it, is itself barakah. “And to give it up is a cause of grief” — the one who abandons it will have something to regret. And then a third statement, striking in its own right: “the magicians cannot confront it.” The narration closes with the explanation of its own final word, preserved with the report itself — Mu’awiya, one of its transmitters, said: “It has been conveyed to me that here Batala means magicians.”

There is a quiet logic in the order of this narration as a whole. It begins with the whole Quran and its intercession, narrows to the two bright surahs and their shade, and ends standing before the single surah that opens the Quran’s longest teaching — urging the believer not merely to admire it but to take recourse to it, before the chance to do so becomes a grief. It is fitting that among the treasures gathered inside this one surah is the greatest verse of the Quran, Ayat al-Kursi, whose own virtues our companion guide to the virtues of Ayat al-Kursi gathers from the authentic reports.

For the ordinary reader, the practical force of this section is simple. Surah Al-Baqarah should not remain the part of the Quran that is always postponed — too long, too demanding, left for a someday that never comes. The Prophet ﷺ framed the choice in terms of blessing and grief. A portion of it each day, steadily, is how most believers will take recourse to it; the narration asks only that we take it, and not give it up.

4. The Proficient Reciter: In the Company of Angels

From the fate of the Book on the Last Day, the authentic reports turn to the rank of its readers — beginning with the highest of them. A’isha reported that Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said:

“One who is proficient in the Qur’an is associated with the noble, upright, recording angels; and he who falters in it, and finds it difficult for him, will have two rewards” (Sahih Muslim 798a — Sahih)

The proficient reciter — the one who has mastered the Quran, its words flowing from him accurately and with ease — is “associated with the noble, upright, recording angels.” It is difficult to imagine a higher description of company. The angels who record and carry out Allah’s commands, noble and upright, are named as the companions of the master reciter. His fluency is not treated as a mere skill, like beautiful handwriting or a strong memory. It places him, by the Prophet’s ﷺ own words, in angelic company.

This is the honour set before everyone who works seriously at the Quran: the student of tajwid correcting his articulation letter by letter, the memorizer reviewing his pages until they hold fast, the teacher whose recitation has been polished by years of returning to the Book. None of that labour is invisible. The narration names its destination — association with the noble, upright, recording angels.

Yet the sentence does not end with the proficient. It is one sentence with two halves, and its second half is for everyone who has ever felt that the Quran is beyond them. That half deserves its own section, because for many readers it is the most important words in this entire article.

5. The Faltering Reciter: Two Rewards, Not One

The second half of A’isha’s report turns to the reader at the opposite end of fluency: the one who falters in the Quran and finds it difficult for him. His verdict is not pity, and it is not a lesser single reward. It is two rewards.

“he who falters in it, and finds it difficult for him, will have two rewards” (Sahih Muslim 798a — Sahih)

Think of who this describes. The new Muslim sounding out his first verses. The elderly believer whose tongue no longer moves as it once did. The busy parent reading a page slowly, stumbling, going back, stumbling again — while a fluent reciter would have finished three pages in the same minutes. By any worldly measure of productivity, such a reader is “behind.” By the measure of this narration, his difficulty itself has become a source of reward: one reward for the recitation, and one for the hardship borne in reciting. He is paid, so to speak, for the effort as well as for the achievement.

This single sentence removes the most common reason people abandon the Quran. Many stop reading because their reading is slow, halting and imperfect, and they assume the reward belongs to the fluent. The Prophet ﷺ taught the opposite: the stumbling reader who persists is not tolerated in this religion — he is doubly rewarded in it. Difficulty is not a disqualification from the virtues of reading the Quran. In this narration, it is an addition to them.

There is a tenderness in the pairing of the two halves. The proficient reciter is given the company of angels, so that mastery is honoured. The faltering reciter is given two rewards, so that weakness is not excluded. Between the two halves, every reader of the Quran — from the master to the beginner — finds himself addressed by name, and neither is sent away with less than a great promise.

6. The Citron: The Believer Who Recites the Quran

The third of our reports gathers the whole subject into a single parable of taste and fragrance. Narrated by Abu Musa Al-Ash’ari, the Prophet ﷺ said:

“The example of him (a believer) who recites the Qur’an is like that of a citron which tastes good and smells good” (Sahih al-Bukhari 5020 — Sahih)

The citron is a fruit that gives on both levels at once: its flavour delights the one who eats it, and its scent delights everyone who comes near it, before a single bite is taken. So it is, the Prophet ﷺ says, with the believer who recites the Quran. His inward state is sound — the “taste,” the faith and character hidden inside him — and his outward life carries a fragrance: his presence, his speech, his dealings carry the scent of the Book he reads. Recitation, in this picture, is not a private hobby sealed off from the rest of life. It sweetens the inside and then announces itself on the outside.

Notice that the likeness is given to “a believer who recites.” Belief supplies the taste; recitation adds the fragrance. The Quran read regularly perfumes a life that faith has already made good.

7. The Date, the Sweet Basil, and the Colocynth

The same narration then completes its fourfold picture, and the remaining three likenesses are what give the first its force:

“And he (a believer) who does not recite the Qur’an is like a date which is good in taste but has no smell. And the example of a dissolute wicked person who recites the Qur’an is like the Raihana (sweet basil) which smells good but tastes bitter. And the example of a dissolute wicked person who does not recite the Qur’an is like the colocynth which tastes bitter and has no smell” (Sahih al-Bukhari 5020 — Sahih)

The believer who does not recite is the date: genuinely good in taste — his faith is real and sweet — but with no smell. Nothing of him reaches those around him; his goodness stays enclosed within himself. It is not a condemnation, but it is a picture of something missing, and the missing thing is precisely recitation. The fragrance was available to him; he simply never took it up.

The dissolute person who recites is the sweet basil: the smell is pleasant, the taste is bitter. The outward show of the Quran is there, but the inside does not match it. And the dissolute person who does not recite is the colocynth — bitter in taste and without any scent at all, the lowest of the four, with neither the inward sweetness of faith nor the outward fragrance of the Book.

Read together, the four likenesses form a scale, and the recitation of the Quran is what lifts a person up it. The believer rises from the enclosed goodness of the date to the spreading goodness of the citron by one thing: reciting. The parable also guards the reader against hypocrisy — fragrance without taste is only basil, pleasant to passers-by and bitter to the one who eats. The Quran is meant to be tasted first and smelled second: worked into the heart until it sweetens the inward life, from which its scent then spreads by itself.

8. Keeping Company with the Quran

Step back from the three reports and a single invitation emerges. The Quran will intercede for those who recite it. Its two bright surahs will come as shade and as pleading flocks of birds for their readers, and its greatest surah is a blessing to take and a grief to abandon. Its proficient reader is with the noble angels; its faltering reader has two rewards. And its reciting believer is the citron, sweet within and fragrant without.

None of these promises is fenced off from the ordinary believer. They do not require a scholar’s library or a lifetime already spent in study. They require recitation — regular, returning recitation, at whatever level the reader stands. A page a day read with presence is the seed of every one of these descriptions. The one who reads should also guard the setting of his reading: gatherings of recitation belong to the life of the Quran just as the virtues of Salah belong to the life of prayer, and the month in which the Quran was sent down has its own honours, gathered in our guide to Laylatul Qadr, the night worth more than a thousand months.

A closing word for the reader who feels his recitation is too weak to matter. The reports in this article were not revealed for the fluent only. The intercession is promised to “those who recite it” — and the only reader this religion sends away empty is the one who does not recite at all. Begin where you are, stumble if you must, and let the Book itself carry you: the same persistence that turns stumbling into double reward also turns, in time, a faltering reader into a proficient one. And for those seeking Allah’s pardon alongside their reading, our guide to the dua for forgiveness gathers the authentic supplications. Step by step — in the Quran, as in learning how to memorize the 99 Names of Allah — the path is walked by returning, again and again, to what Allah has revealed and preserved.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What is the greatest virtue of reading the Quran mentioned in the hadith? The greatest promise is intercession. Abu Umama reported that the Prophet ﷺ said the Quran will come on the Day of Resurrection as an intercessor for those who recite it (Sahih Muslim 804a). The verses a person recites in this world will plead for him on the Day when he needs it most.

Q2: I read the Quran slowly and make many mistakes. Is my reading still rewarded? Yes — doubly. A’isha reported that the Prophet ﷺ said the one who falters in the Quran and finds it difficult will have two rewards (Sahih Muslim 798a): a reward for the recitation and a reward for the hardship. Slow, difficult reading is not a barrier to reward; persistence in it is itself rewarded.

Q3: Which surahs did the Prophet ﷺ single out for special virtue? He singled out the two bright ones, Surah Al-Baqarah and Surah Aal-e-Imran, which will come on the Day of Resurrection as two clouds, two shades, or two flocks of birds in ranks, pleading for those who recite them; and he urged reciting Surah Al-Baqarah in particular, calling it a blessing to take and a cause of grief to give up (Sahih Muslim 804a).

Q4: What does the citron hadith mean? In Sahih al-Bukhari 5020, the Prophet ﷺ likened the believer who recites the Quran to a citron — good in taste and good in smell: sound in his inner faith and a source of benefit and fragrance to those around him. The believer who does not recite is like a date, sweet in taste but without smell; recitation is what adds the outward fragrance to inward faith.

Q5: What is the reward of the person who becomes proficient in the Quran? He is associated with the noble, upright, recording angels, as A’isha reported from the Prophet ﷺ (Sahih Muslim 798a). Mastery of recitation is therefore not a mere skill; the narration places the proficient reciter in the company of the angels themselves.