about the rewards for actions and merits of some of the Qur’an’s suras to be exaggeration and even impossible overstatement. For instance, there are narrations that state: “Sura al-Fatiha is equal in merit to the Qur’an;” [^7] “Sura al-Ikhlas equals a third of the Qur’an,” “Sura al-Zilzal, a quarter,” “Sura al-Kafirun, a quarter,” “Sura Ya. Sin., ten times the Qur’an.” Unjust, unthinking people have said this is impossible because Sura Ya. Sin. and the other meritorious suras are part of the Qur’an, which makes the narrations meaningless.

[^7]:Bukhārī, Tafsīr Sūra 1:1; Faḍā’il al-Qur’ān, 9; Tirmidhī, Thawāb al-Qur’ān, 1.

The Answer: The truth is this: for each of the All-Wise Qur’an’s letters is a merit. Each is a good deed. Out of divine grace the merits of those letters sprout and yield sometimes ten, sometimes seventy, and sometimes seven hundred, merits, like the letters of Ayat al-Kursi. Sometimes they yield one thousand five hundred, like the letters of Sura al-Ikhlas, and sometimes ten thousand, like verses recited on the Night of Acquittal and those that coincide with other acceptable times. And sometimes they yield thirty thousand, like verses recited on the Night of Power, which are like poppy seeds in their multiplicity. This is understood from the verse indicating that that night was “better than a thousand nights”(97:3): a single letter on that night yields thirty thousand merits. Thus, with its multiplication of merits the All-Wise Qur’an is surely incomparable, comparisons cannot be made with it. Nevertheless, parallels may be drawn between its essential merits and some suras. For example, let us suppose there is a field planted with maize, one thousand plants of it. If some seeds produce seven shoots and from each shoot a hundred grains appear, then a single seed becomes the equivalent of two thirds of the whole field. Or, if one seed produces ten shoots, and each yields two hundred grains, then a single seed is the equivalent of twice the original field. You can make further analogies in the same way.

Now, let us imagine the All-Wise Qur’an to be a luminous, sacred, heavenly field. Each of its letters together with its original merit is like a seed. Their shoots will not be taken into consideration. They may be compared with the suras and verses about which are narrations concerning their merits, like Ya. Sin., Ikhlas, Fatiha, Kafirun, Zilzal. For example, the Qur’an has three hundred thousand six hundred and twenty letters, and Sura al-Ikhlas together with Bismillah, sixty-nine. Three times sixty-nine is two hundred and seven letters, so the merits of each letter of Sura al-Ikhlas number nearly one thousand five hundred. Thus, if Sura Ya. Sin.’s letters are reckoned and compared with all the letters of the All-Wise Qur’an, and then multiplied ten times, it produces the following result: each letter of