Section: Combining the Seven Readings

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked about the practice of combining the seven canonical readings: is it a sunna or a bidʿa (religious innovation)? Were they collected in the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) or not? And does the one who gathers them earn a reward superior to that of someone who recites according to only one transmission, or not?

He answered—may Allah have mercy on him: Praise belongs to Allah. Simply knowing a reading and preserving it is an established sunna, handed down as each generation learns from the one before it. Therefore, becoming acquainted with the reading that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) himself recited, commanded others to recite, or approved after they had recited it, is part of the sunna. Whoever is skilled in the various readings and has memorized them enjoys a distinction over someone who knows only a single reading.

As for combining the readings within a single prayer or within one recitation, that is a disapproved bidʿa. Yet collecting them for the purposes of memorization and study is a matter of ijtihād, a course that some specialists in Qur’an recitation have pursued.

Completed by Allah’s praise and His grace.