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A Thirtieth of the Recitation Cycle

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A Thirtieth of the Recitation Cycle

A juz (plural ajza), also called a para in South Asia, is one of thirty roughly equal divisions of the written Quran. The division is made by length rather than by meaning, so a juz usually begins and ends in the middle of a surah; each is further split into two hizb and each hizb into quarters. Reciting one juz a night completes the whole Quran across a lunar month, a rhythm tied above all to Ramadan, when the entire text is recited in the nightly tarawih prayers. This portion spans Al-Ahqaf 46:1 through Adh-Dhariyat 51:30. Al-Ahqaf ('The Sand-Dunes') recalls the people of Ad and the jinn who heard the Quran. Muhammad treats the ethics of conflict, Al-Fath ('The Victory') celebrates the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, Al-Hujurat ('The Chambers') teaches manners and brotherhood, and Qaf opens the run of short Meccan surahs.

Fussilat's engagement with Meccan objections to the revelation, read in this juz, includes the striking image of skin itself testifying against its owner on the Day of Judgement (41:20-21), a passage later mystical and homiletic literature returned to repeatedly when discussing bodily witness and accountability. Ad-Dukhan preserves reference to a 'Night' of blessing on which the Quran was sent down (44:3), a phrase most classical commentators connect to the same Night of Decree, Laylat al-Qadr, named explicitly in its own short surah late in the Quran, rather than to a separate occasion.

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