numerous texts as evidence of the soundness of its meaning. Indeed, Imam al-Bukhārī—may Allah have mercy on him—used it as the title of one of the chapters in the Book of the Virtues of the Quran in his Sahīh. In its seventeenth chapter, he wrote: “Chapter: The Superiority of the Quran over All Other Speech.” Under this chapter, he cited two momentous hadiths.

The first is the hadith of Abu Mūsā al-Asharī—may Allah be pleased with him—in which the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said: “The one who recites the Quran is like a citron: its taste is pleasant and its fragrance is pleasant. The one who does not recite the Quran is like a date: its taste is pleasant, but it has no fragrance. The wicked person who recites the Quran is like an aromatic plant: its fragrance is pleasant, but its taste is bitter. The wicked person who does not recite the Quran is like a colocynth: its taste is bitter, and it has no fragrance.”1

In his book The Virtues of the Quran—a concise and immensely beneficial commentary on the Book of the Virtues of the Quran in Sahīh al-Bukhārī—Ibn Kathīr, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “The relevance of this hadith to the chapter is that pleasant fragrance accompanies the Quran when it is present and is absent when the Quran is absent. This demonstrates its superiority over all other speech uttered by the righteous and the wicked alike.”2

The second is the hadith of Ibn Umar—may Allah be pleased with him and his father—in which the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said: “Your span in comparison with that of the nations that came before you is like the time between the late-afternoon prayer and sunset. Your likeness and that of the Jews and Christians is that of a man who hired laborers and said, ‘Who will work for me until midday for one qīrāt each?’ The Jews did so. He then said, ‘Who will work for me from midday until the late-afternoon prayer?’ And so worked