Reading Soorat Yaa-Seen in congregation on Friday nights

Reading the Quran brings a great reward. Allah will multiply the reward for every letter of every aayah in any soorah that is read, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever reads one letter of the Book of Allah will have one hasanah (reward) for doing so, and every hasanah will be multiplied by 10. I do not say that ‘Alif, laam, meem’ is one letter, but ‘Alif’ is a letter, ‘laam’ is a letter and ‘meem’ is a letter.’”

(Reported and classed as hasan by al-Tirmidhi, 2835).

He (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said: “Read the Quran, for it will come on the Day of Resurrection interceding for its companions (i.e., those who read it)…”

(Reported by Muslim, 1337)

This reward will only be for the one who reads it sincerely, following the Sunnah. But the one who innovates in his readings (whether it be in the way he reads, the position he adopts when reading, the number of times he reads or the times when he reads) will not earn the reward, rather his deeds will be rejected and thrown back at him, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever innovates something in this matter of ours (i.e., Islam) will have it rejected.” (Reported by Muslim, 3242). According to another report, he said: “Whoever does something that is not a part of this matter of ours, will have it rejected.” (Reported by Muslim, 3243)

Because a specific time – Friday night – is being allocated and the reading is being done in congregation although no saheeh evidence to that effect has been reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), this action is bid’ah and is not prescribed or allowed by sharee’ah. It should therefore be avoided. We ask Allah to guide us all to the truth and help us to follow the Sunnah. May Allah bless our Prophet Muhammad.