Why is it recommended to increase the recitation of Qur’an during Ramadan?

Ramadan, the ninth month, was chosen because it was the month in which the Qur'an was revealed as Allah (سبحانهُ وتعالى) said,

“The month of Ramadan [is that] in which was revealed the Qur'an,...” [1]

So Allah has defined the reason why Ramadan, what’s so special about Ramadan. It was the month in which the Qur'an was revealed.

So obviously, the Qur'an in Ramadan should be amongst the major elements that we should be trying to achieve, seeking to achieve during the month of Ramadan. How? How should we be relating to the Qur'an in Ramadan? This is the point that we need to look at. Is it, as our brother said, to complete two Qur'ans in Ramadan? and its true Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) in the last year of his (ﷺ) life, he (ﷺ) completed the recitation of the Qur'an twice before Jibra'eel, Zaid ibn Thabit and others who were with him (ﷺ). He (ﷺ) did it twice. So, should that be the goal, to have done it twice? Well, we have to look to see what was the purpose of the Prophet (ﷺ) reciting the whole of the Qur'an twice in Ramadan. Was he (ﷺ) reciting it for the barakah, for the blessing that comes from reciting it, or was he (ﷺ) revising it, so that his (ﷺ) close companions would know the order and perfect their recitation, so that when he (ﷺ) would no longer be there, they would be able to carry on the Qur'an, to preserve it, protect it and convey it for the generations to come? Did the Prophet (ﷺ) say anything about reciting it twice in Ramadan?

Also we have to look at the goal of reading the Qur'an in general, that goal should primarily be to understand the message, which Allah is conveying, and to apply the principles in our lives. So the reading of the Qur'an should primarily be for reflection, taddabur, as Allah said in the Qur'an,

“Then do they not reflect upon the Qur'an, or are there locks upon [their] hearts?”[2]

This is the state of the ummah today that we will read the Qur'an in Ramadan ritualistically, then place it on the shelf until the next Ramadan. The imams who lead us in prayer during Ramadan recite at most part, at 90 miles per hour, that even Arabs who understand Arabic will have difficulty understanding, ‘where is this man in the Qur'an,’ he is reading “abhun abhuna abun”. This is ritualistic; this is not something pleasing to Allah. If the individual wants to do that in his private time because he wants to quickly get through his Qur'an to revise his memorization, fine, but this is not prayer, this is not ibaadah, this is muraja’ah, this is revision. This is not prayer, this is not how the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) recited the Qur'an,

‘...and recite the Qur'an with measured recitation.”[3]

this is what Allah tells us, that we recite the Qur'an in slow measured tones. That’s how the Qur'an is supposed to be recited, inside Ramadan and outside of Ramadan, no difference.

So the goal of reading the Qur'an as the Sahabah had narrated to us, Ibn Masud and others, is that they used to learn the Qur'an ten verses at a time and they would not move on to another ten until they had understood what Allah wanted from them, what Allah was conveying in those verses and they had tried to apply it. They said, “we learned emaan and amal together”, we learned faith and righteous deeds together, we didn’t separate them just studying, just the faith, no, applying the knowledge of the faith together. So each one of us of course, has different experience, a different background relative to the Qur'an so it’s not possible to set one goal for everybody and say this is the one you need to strive for in Ramadan. No, each and every one of you needs to set the appropriate goal for himself or herself with regards to the Qur'an based on what we have just discussed based on the amount of memorization, memorized portion of the Qur'an we already have, set some goals in terms of increasing that. If we are already haafidh and memorized the whole Qur'an, then revising it two times as our brother had suggested or if we are going to read it again even if we are going to sit and we say, “I’m Arabic speaking, I know Arabic, so I know what the Arabic Qur'an means, so I want to read it two times” but still for you to complete two complete readings at a pace where you are actually reflecting at what you are reading, you’ll find yourself in trouble and you’ll likely end up reading quickly and that isn’t the goal, it’s not just reading for the sake of reading. It’s reading for the sake of reflection. So better to set a chunk of the Qur'an that is attainable, this is one of the correct ways to lay our plans, we lay something which is really attainable, not something which is beyond our ability. We know from our experience that we really can’t do that, we end up into some kind of ritualistic parrot fashion reading of the Qur'an. We don’t want to go there, so we set a practical amount.

If we read Surah Al-Baqara, two and a half Juz of the Qur'an, where we read it with tafseer this year, then next year we go to Aal-e-Imran with tafseer, seeing, reflecting on the meanings, this is a great thing. So I’m not saying that that’s the goal each and every one of you has to set because all of you have different background but we set practical, realistic and truly Islamic goals with regards to the Qur'an in Ramadan, since Allah (سبحانهُ وتعالى) has elevated the month because of the Qur'an we say that should be amongst our primary goals, having achieved the goal that we set with the Qur'an we can say awesome Ramadan.

References:

[1] [Qur’an 2:185]

[2] [Qur’an 47:24]

[3] [Qur’an 73:4]