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:
Reciting the Noble Quran is greatly rewarded by Allah Almighty. This reward applies whether a Muslim recites the Quran from a written copy (Mushaf) or from any other digital source such as a computer, a mobile phone, a website, or the like.
In his response to your question on reading digital Quran, Dr. Wael Shihab, PhD in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University, and he is currently the Imam of the Downtown Toronto Masjid in Canada, states:
Thank you for your question.
Reward for reading the Quran
The Noble Quran is a Book that needs to be read again and again. Reading the Quran entails great reward.
Allah Almighty praises those who read the Quran, saying,
{Indeed, those who recite the Book of Allah, and establish Prayer and spend [in His cause] out of what we have provided them, secretly and publicly, [can] expect a trade that will never perish; that He may give them in full their rewards and increase for them of His bounty. Indeed, He is Forgiving and Appreciative…} (Fatir 35: 29-30)
Also, in many of his hadiths, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) elaborated the great merits of reading the Quran.
Bellow are some examples:
(On the Day of Judgment,) it will be said to the people of the Qur’an, ‘Read (the Quran) and occupy your high degrees. Recite (the Quran) as you used to recite it in the world, for your position will be at the end of the last (Quranic) verse you read.’” (At-Tirmidhi)
“The best worship of my followers is the recitation of the Qur’an…” (Al-Bayhaqi and Ad-Daylami)
“If anyone of you likes to speak to Allah, he should read the Qur’an.” (Al-Bayhaqi and Ad-Daylami)
“Anyone who reads one letter from the Book of Allah, he will be rewarded as a good deed; each deed is equal ten times; I don’t say Alif.. Laam.. Meem, is one letter; but Alif is one letter, Laam is one letter, and Meem is one letter.” (Al-Tirmidhi)
Somebody may say that he cannot read the Quran fluently or reads it with difficulty; I here give him the glad tidings which is stated in the following hadith:
The Prophet said, “Whoever recites the Quran and masters it by heart, will be with the noble righteous scribes (in Heaven). And, whoever exerts himself to learn the Qur’an by heart and recites it with great difficulty, will have a double reward.” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
Is reading digital Quran rewardable?
The above great merits and rewards are attained by a Muslim whether he or she reads from a mushaf (a copy of the Quran), or what is called digital Quran, i.e. on a computer screen, a mobile, a tablet, etc.
What matters is that a Muslim needs to read from a correct and accredited version of the Quran.
May Allah accept your and our good deeds!
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.