Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Recitation of the Quran is permitted throughout each and every day, even during the times when optional prayers are prohibited.
Responding to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
Reading the Glorious Quran entails great merits. The Prophet (peace 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, lam, mim’ is one letter, but ‘alif’ is a letter, ‘lam’ is a letter and ‘mim’ is a letter.’” (At-Tirmidhi)
Recitation of the Quran is permitted throughout each and every day, even during the times when optional prayers are prohibited.
The only consideration to be made is regarding the prostration of recitation or Sujud At-Tilawah. Some scholars (Hanafi persuasion, etc.) prohibit prostration during the times that prayer is prohibited.
The majority of scholars do not find anything wrong in reciting the Quran at anytime, as the hadith texts relating to prohibited times of worship only refer to Prayer. If reciting the Quran had been intended, it would have been clearly stated.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.