Moving back and forth while reading the Quran

13-2-2006 | IslamWeb

Question:

I have memorized 15 Juz', and while I am reading Quran I move back and forth. A few weeks ago someone told me it was wrong to do so because when the Jews read their bible they move while doing their worshipping.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

 

When the jurists mentioned the etiquettes of reciting the Quran, they stated that it is desirable for a person who recites the Quran to be in full submissiveness, sitting quietly and sedately; and the movement you inquired about contradicts this. As regards whether doing this is imitating the Jews, the answer is that this depends on the intention of the person who is doing this. Whoever intends to imitate them, then he has committed the prohibition of imitating them, but if one did not intend to imitate them, but it was just a coincidence, then we cannot say that he is imitating them, yet he acted opposite of what is desirable in observing the etiquettes of recitation, as already mentioned.

Ibn Nujaym [from the Hanafi school] said: 'Imitating the people of the Book is not disliked in everything, as we eat and drink just like they eat and drink, but it is forbidden to imitate them in dispraised things, and in things that are done with the intention of imitating them. This is what Qaadhi Khan mentioned in Sharh Al-jaami' As-Sagheer. Therefore if one did not intend to imitate them, then it is not disliked for him to do so.'

May Allaah enable you to do good and to finish memorizing the Quran and make it a provision for you in this life and in the Hereafter.

Allaah Knows best.