Reciting Surat al-Mulk

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: إن سورة من القرآن ثلاثون آية شفعت لرجل حتى غفر له وهي سورة {تبارك الذي بيده الملك} [الترمذي (٢٨٩١) والحاكم (٢٠٩٦) وسنده حسن]

The Prophet ﷺ said: “Indeed, a Sūrah from the Qurʾān of thirty Āyah interceded for a man until he was forgiven, and it is Sūrah {Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion and He is over all things able}.” [Al-Tirmidhī (2891) and al-Ḥākim (2096); Isnād Ḥasan]

قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم: سورة من القرآن ما هي إلا ثلاثون آية ‌خاصمت ‌عن ‌صاحبها حتى أدخلته الجنة ، وهي سورة تبارك [المعجم الصغير (٤٩٠) والأوسط (٣٦٥٤) والعمدة من الفوائد (ص ١١٩) والمختارة (٥/ ١١٤) وسنده حسن]

Allāh’s messenger ﷺ said: “A Sūrah from the Qurʾān is nothing but thirty Āyahs; it argued on behalf of its companion until it entered him into Paradise, and it is Sūrah Tabārak.” [Al-Muʿjam al-Ṣaghīr (490), al-Awsaṭ (3654), al-ʿUmdah min al-Fawāʾid (p. 119), and al-Mukhtārah (5/114) with Ḥasan Isnād]

ابن مسعود قال: ‌سورة تبارك ‌هي ‌المانعة، تمنع بإذن الله تبارك وتعالى من عذاب القبر، أتي رجل من قبل رأسه فقالت له: لا سبيل لك على هذا إنه كان قد دعا في ‌سورة الملك، وأتي من قبل رجليه فقالت رجلاه: لا سبيل لكم على هذا إنه كان يقوم بي بسورة الملك فمنعته بإذن الله من عذاب القبر، وهي في التوراة ‌سورة الملك، من قرأها في ليلة فقد أكثر وأطاب [عذاب القبر للبيهقي (١٤٩) وسنده حسن]

Ibn Masʿūd said: “Sūrah Tabārak is the Preventer. It prevents, by the permission of Allāh, the Blessed and Exalted, from the punishment of the grave. A man will be approached from the direction of his head, and (the angel) will say to him: ‘You have no way over this one, for he used to recite Sūrah al-Mulk.’ And he will be approached from the direction of his feet, and his feet will say: ‘You have no way over this one, for he used to stand (in prayer) with me reciting Sūrah al-Mulk.’ So it prevents him, by the permission of Allāh, from the punishment of the grave. And it is (known as) Sūrah al-Mulk in the Torah. Whoever recites it in a night has done abundantly and excellently.” [ʿAdhāb al-Qabr by al-Bayhaqī (149); Isnād Ḥasan]

This is Marfū’ hukman (takes the ruling of being Marfū’) even though they are the words of a Sahabi because they don’t guess in matters of unseen. This shows we can recite it in the prayer or outside the prayer, the day or night (whether after maghrib or after ‘Isha) and so on because the ahādīth are general. Although if one recites it before sleeping as a habit to not miss the virtue, then this is good as Khālid bin Ma’dān (a tabi’ī) did.

فكان ‌خالد ‌لا ‌يبيت ‌حتى ‌يقرأ ‌بهما [الدارمي (٣٦١٣) وسنده حسن وفيه عبد الله بن صالح كله مما يجيء من روايته عن أهل ‌الحذق]

Khālid would not go to sleep until he recited both of them (al-Sajdah and al-Mulk) [Al-Dārimī (3613); Isnād Ḥasan]