Question

In a hadith I recently read (in Al-Muwatta) there was mention of a section of Qur'an called "Hizb".  It said:"Umar ibn al-Khattab said: "Whoever misses reading his hizb at night and reads it from when the sun has passed the meridian until the dhuhr prayer has not missed it, or it is as if he has caught it."  Could you please explain what is a hizb?  May Allah reward you very much.

Answer

The word “hizb” in this case is not the commonly used word when referring to the division of the Glorious Qur’an into 30 ajzaa’ (plural of juz’) and each juz’ into two hizb, instead, the word “hizb” in this case is referring to “wird” or the common or fixed amount that one reads of the Qur’an a day or night.  For some this “wird” or “hizb” is 3 or more ajzaa’, for others one juz’, for others one fourth of a juz’ and for still others a few pages or less. 

We apologize for the delay in answering your question, but we realized this was not referring to a 60^th of the Qur’an, since this type of division was done after the time of Umar bin Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, but something else and we had to ask those of knowledge to answer the question properly.

May Allah reward you also and all the Muslims with the best of rewards.