Islamic History
The Prophet's Nightly Recitation of the Quran
From the representatives of Sakîf, Evs b. Huzeyfe said: “One night, our Prophet (peace be upon him) did not come to us for a long time after retiring. We asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah! Why were you delayed in coming to us?’ The Prophet (peace be upon him) replied, ‘I have made it my duty to recite one hizb from the Qur’an every day. I did not want to come out until I had fulfilled this.’ When we got up in the morning, we asked the companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), ‘How do you divide and read the Qur’an?’ They said, ‘We divide and read it by threes, fives, sevens, nines, elevens, thirteens, and until the surah Kaf, we also divide and read the Mufassal [surahs with fewer than a hundred verses which follow the Madani surahs and are divided into long, medium, and short mufassals] separately!’