than His attentive listening to a prophet with a pleasant voice who melodiously recites the Qur’an aloud. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had the finest voice for the Qur’an and rendered it better than anyone else, for the Qur’an was revealed to him—and the Qur’an was his very character ﷺ.

This hadith also shows that in the ʿIshāʼ prayer it is permissible to recite from the short chapters of the mufassal, for Sūrat al-Tīn belongs to that group. More commonly, however, he would recite from the middle-length chapters, as the Prophet ﷺ instructed Muʿādh ibn Jabal to recite Sabbiḥ isma rabbika al-aʿlā (Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High), Hal atāka ḥadīthu’l-ghāshiyah (Has there come to you the report of the Overwhelming Event), Wa’l-layli idhā yaghshā (By the night when it envelops), Wa’l-shamsi ḍuḥāhā (By the sun and its morning brightness), and the like. Nevertheless, there is no harm in reciting from the very short chapters such as al-Tīn or Idhā zulzilati (When the earth is shaken) and similar passages.

The Prophet ﷺ likewise urged believers to beautify their voices with the Qur’an, saying, “Whoever does not adorn his recitation with the Qur’an is not one of us.”

The scholars explain that this phrase carries two meanings:

1. “Whoever does not yataghanā with it”—that is, whoever does not find sufficiency in it and instead seeks guidance elsewhere—is not of us. There is no doubt that whoever seeks guidance away from the Qur’an, Allah will leave him astray, and we seek His protection from that.

2. The second meaning is: “Whoever does not beautify his voice with the Qur’an…”