possible for a person to content himself with it and dispense with the rest of the Quran.

The answer is that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“It is equivalent to one-third of the Quran.”

The word ‘adl (equivalent), pronounced with the vowel a, is used of something of a different kind, as Allah Most High says:

“Or an equivalent amount of fasting.”

Thus, He made fasting equivalent to an expiation, although they are of two different kinds. Undoubtedly, the rewards in Paradise are of various kinds. Everything from which a servant derives benefit and pleasure—food, drink, spouses, and fragrances—is part of that reward, the highest of which is gazing upon the Face of Allah Most High.

The things of this world are all needed because of their different benefits, even though some are equivalent in value to others much greater in physical size. A thousand dinars, for example, are equivalent to a greater bulk of silver, food, clothing, and other things. Someone who possesses that gold thus possesses the equivalent of a thousand dinars’ worth of those things, although this does not enable him to dispense with the other kinds of wealth from which he benefits. This is because the equivalence is in amount, not in kind or quality.

Likewise, although the reward for “Say: He is Allah, the One” equals the reward for one-third of the Quran in amount, it need not be identical to it in kind or quality. The rest of the Quran contains commands, prohibitions, promises, and warnings that people need. They therefore need the rest of the Quran and derive from it benefits for which this surah cannot substitute, even though it is equivalent to one-third of the Quran.

This question thus rests upon a fundamental issue: whether the Quran varies in excellence in