Juz 23

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 Ya-Sin 36:28 through Az-Zumar 39:31. Ya-Sin, often called the heart of the Quran and recited for the dying, resolves in vivid scenes of resurrection. As-Saffat ('Those Ranged in Ranks') recounts the near-sacrifice of Abraham's son, and Sad treats David, Solomon and Job before Az-Zumar ('The Throngs') opens.

Al-Ahzab's material on the Battle of the Trench (33:9-27), fought in 5 AH when Medina was besieged by a coalition of Meccan and allied tribes, is read by classical historians alongside the near-contemporary biographical literature (sira) on the Prophet's life as one of the clearest points of overlap between Quranic text and independently transmitted historical narrative, the trench itself, dug on the advice of the Persian companion Salman al-Farisi, being remembered in both traditions. Ya-Sin, which this juz reaches by its end, is widely recited in the modern period at the bedside of the dying and after death, a custom resting on hadith describing its recitation as easing a soul's departure, though the practice's history within the Quranic text's original context is devotional rather than legislated.

Juz 23 finishes Ya-Sin's last fifty-six verses, then carries two complete surahs, all one hundred and eighty-two verses of As-Saffat despite its considerable length, and all eighty-eight verses of Sad, before opening Az-Zumar and carrying just over two-fifths of its seventy-five verses. As-Saffat is among the longer surahs to be carried whole within a single juz anywhere in the Quran.

In communities that pace the nightly tarawih prayers of Ramadan at one juz per night, this is customarily the twenty-third night's portion, though many mosques recite faster to finish early in the month or slower to spread the reading further, and some congregations instead divide the whole Quran among thirty reciters for a single collective khatm. Huffaz reviewing memorised portions often pace themselves by a juz's two hizb and four quarter-hizb divisions rather than by surah, and printed Mushafs typically mark each juz's opening in the margin with a small medallion inscribed with its number. Many print editions, including the widely used 604-page Uthmani Mushaf standardised by Saudi Arabia's King Fahd Complex, begin each juz on a fresh page and hold each to roughly twenty pages, letting a reciter track a night's target by page count alone without consulting verse numbers.