Short answer
The best known authentic hadith say that the best of you are those who learn the Quran and teach it, that every letter you recite earns ten rewards, that the Quran will intercede for its companions on the Day of Judgement, and that the one who struggles with it gets a double reward.
Reciting the Quran outside salah is mustahabb (recommended) and among the best of voluntary deeds. In the Hanafi school, reciting the Quran is better than voluntary dhikr in general, except for the specific adhkar the Sunnah sets for a time or place.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
The four schools agree on the virtue of reciting the Quran. These are some of the clearest authentic hadith on it, from Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim and Jami al-Tirmidhi.
- Learning and teaching: "The best of you are those who learn the Quran and teach it." Teaching a child Surah al-Fatiha, or a friend the Arabic letters, falls under this.
- Ten rewards for every letter: whoever recites a letter of the Book of Allah earns a good deed, and each good deed is multiplied by ten. The Prophet ﷺ added that Alif Lam Mim is not one letter: Alif is a letter, Lam is a letter and Mim is a letter.
- Intercession: "Recite the Quran, for it will come on the Day of Resurrection as an intercessor for its companions."
- The fluent and the struggling reader: the one who is skilled in it will be with the noble, righteous scribes (the angels), and the one who stumbles over it and finds it hard gets two rewards.
A further hadith in Bukhari compares the believer who recites the Quran to a citron, a fruit with a sweet smell and a sweet taste. In Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ said that no group gathers in a house of Allah to recite and study the Book together without tranquillity descending on them and the angels surrounding them.
For the reward of reading without understanding, see reading the Quran without understanding. For memorisation, see the reward of memorising the Quran. You can log your daily reading in the Quran tracker.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Faatir 35:29
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَتْلُونَ كِتَٰبَ ٱللَّهِ وَأَقَامُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَأَنفَقُوا۟ مِمَّا رَزَقْنَٰهُمْ سِرًّۭا وَعَلَانِيَةًۭ يَرْجُونَ تِجَٰرَةًۭ لَّن تَبُورَ ﴿٢٩﴾
Indeed, those who recite the Book of Allah and establish prayer and spend [in His cause] out of what We have provided them, secretly and publicly, [can] expect a profit that will never perish -
Those who recite the Book of Allah hope for a trade with Him that will never perish.
Sahih al-Bukhari 5027
Sahih... خيركم من تعلم القرآن وعلمه ...
"The best of you is the one who learns the Quran and teaches it."
Learning and teaching the Quran is among the best of deeds.
Jami' at-Tirmidhi 2910
Graded sahih... من قرأ حرفا من كتاب الله فله به حسنة والحسنة بعشر أمثالها ...
"Whoever recites a letter from the Book of Allah gets a good deed for it, and a good deed is worth ten like it."
Every letter recited is rewarded tenfold.
Sahih Muslim 804
Sahih... اقرءوا القرآن فإنه يأتي يوم القيامة شفيعا لأصحابه ...
"Recite the Quran, for it will come on the Day of Resurrection as an intercessor for its companions."
The Quran will intercede for those who kept up its recitation.
Sahih Muslim 798
Sahih... الماهر بالقرآن مع السفرة الكرام البررة ...
"The one skilled in the Quran is with the noble and righteous scribes, and the one who stumbles over it with difficulty has two rewards."
Both the fluent and the struggling reader are honoured.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, Kitab al-Karahiyya, chapter on salah, tasbih and reciting the Quran. Discusses the merit of recitation and its manners outside salah.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.