but is instead left to people’s discretion. Hence the copies of the Quran belonging to the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, differed in their arrangement. For this reason, two positions are reported from Imam Ahmad concerning whether reciting the surahs out of order is disliked. According to the first, it is disliked because it departs from the agreed-upon arrangement of the ʿUthmānic Quran. According to the second, it is not disliked, as when children are taught to recite, since it is established that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, recited al-Baqarah, then al-Nisā’, then Āl ʿImrān.”

The reply is: There is no doubt that reciting one surah after another necessarily follows an order. At most, there may be different arrangements, just as the Quran was revealed in different forms. On this understanding, the division into portions would follow the arrangement adopted. It is also possible for this division into portions to apply to any arrangement, since the hadith does not specify the surahs.

This practice of the Companions is the best, for several reasons:

First: These newly introduced divisions invariably involve stopping within a passage that is connected to what follows. They even entail stopping at a conjoined passage rather than the passage to which it is conjoined, so that the reader begins the second day with a conjoined passage, such as Allah’s words:

“And married women, except those whom your right hands possess,”

and His words:

“And whoever among you devoutly obeys Allah and His Messenger,”

and similar passages. They also involve stopping partway through a narrative—even in the midst of an exchange between two speakers—so that one begins