that the Prophet ﷺ would sometimes recite quietly and sometimes aloud. The narrator who reported this from Aishah said: “Praise be to Allah, who has left the matter spacious, so that each person may recite according to his energy or weariness, and in the manner that best safeguards his sincerity or spares him the fear of showing off and affectation.” (1) The Exalted says, “If you make your charity public, it is good; but if you conceal it and give it to the poor, that is better for you” (Qur’an 2:271). Al-Tirmidhi commented: “The meaning of this hadith is that the one who recites the Qur’an quietly is better than the one who recites aloud, because secret charity is, in the view of the scholars, superior to open charity. The rationale, according to them, is to protect a person from self-admiration (*ujb*); the one who hides his deed is not exposed to *ujb* as much as the one who publicizes it.” Al-Sindi adds: “Yet the Prophet’s instruction to Abu Bakr—‘raise your voice a little’—shows that moderation in recitation is preferable. Either the loud recitation mentioned in the hadith should be understood as hyperbole, with quiet recitation meaning moderation, or the hadith applies to cases in which the circumstances call for secrecy; otherwise, moderation in itself is best.” I (the author) say: The second interpretation is the more evident, and Allah knows best. (2) Reported by al-Bukhari in Af‘al al-‘Ibad (no. 94); Abu Dawud (1/209); al-Nasa’i (1/357); al-Tirmidhi (2/151, Bulaq ed.); Ibn Nasr (p. 53); al-Hakim (1/554–555); and Ahmad (4/151, 158) through Bahir ibn Sa‘d, from Khalid ibn Ma‘dan, from Kathir ibn Murrah al-Hadrami, from Uqbah ibn Amir, in a marfu‘ report. Al-Tirmidhi said: