People have differed over which is better: slow, measured recitation of a smaller amount, or rapid recitation of a larger amount. There are two views.
Ibn ʿAbbās, Ibn Masʿūd and others held that (1) measured recitation with reflection, even when less is recited, is better than rapid recitation of a larger amount.
Those who hold this view argue that the purpose of the Quran (2) is to understand it, reflect upon it, gain insight into it and act upon it. Reciting and memorizing it are means of reaching its meanings. As some of the early generations said: “The Quran was revealed to be acted upon, yet they treated its recitation as acting upon it” (3).
Thus, the people of the Quran are those who understand it and act upon its teachings, even if they have not memorized it by heart. As for someone who has memorized it but neither understands it nor acts upon it, he is not one of its people, even if he renders its letters as precisely as an arrow is straight.
(1) Mīm-Bā’, Nūn read: “Ibn Mas‘ūd, Ibn ‘Abbās—may Allah be pleased with them both—and others held that…”
For reports from Ibn ‘Abbās, see ‘Abd al-Razzāq’s al-Musannaf (4187) and Ibn Abī Shayba’s al-Musannaf (8817, 30784). For reports from Ibn Mas‘ūd, see Ibn Abī Shayba’s al-Musannaf (8816, 8819, 8825, 30778, 30782). The author will shortly mention some of these.
(2) The printed editions read “recitation”; the correct reading is the one adopted here from the manuscripts. See Ibn al-Jazarī’s al-Nashr (1/209).
(3) Ibn Qutayba attributed this saying to al-Hasan al-Basrī in Ta’wīl mushkil al-Qur’ān (p. 233), as did Shaykh al-Islām in Majmū‘ al-fatāwā (25/170) and the author in Madārij al-sālikīn (1/451) and Miftāh dār al-sa‘āda (1/537). Al-Ājurrī recorded it in Akhlāq ahl al-Qur’ān (p. 102), al-Khatīb in Iqtidā’ al-‘ilm al-‘amal (p. 175), and Abū Nu‘aym in al-Hilya (8/92), through several transmission routes from ‘Abd al-Samad ibn Yazīd, from al-Fudayl ibn ‘Iyād, as the latter’s own statement. The author also cited it without attribution in al-Dā’ wa-l-dawā’ (p. 357), as he does here. It has also been attributed to Ibn Mas‘ūd.