Celebrating completing the Qur’aan (khatm al-Qur’aan)
Question

Some women, when they finish learning the Qur’aan by heart from their shaykhah, organize a simple celebration in which they read from the end of  the Mus-haf and immediately add something from the beginning (al-Faatihah and five aayaat of al-Baqarah) so that their reading will not cease. What is the ruling on that?
Praise be to Allah., and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allaah.
 Celebrating the completion of memorizing the Qur’aan is not Sunnah, because nothing of that nature was narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) or from any of his Sahaabah. Doing this on the grounds that it is part of religion is bid’ah. But people do it as a customary expression of joy for the blessing of having memorized Qur’aan, like celebrations for the return of one who has been away, or for finding work, or for moving to a new home. If the celebration for completing the Qur’aan is of this nature, then there is nothing wrong with it. If a passage from the Qur’aan is recited, from the beginning or the end, without having to recite a specific soorah or recite in a particular way such as joining the end to the beginning, then this is fine, because reciting from Qur’aan is the best thing that can be done in a gathering and it is a reminder for those who are present. With regard to making du’aa’ when completing the recitation of the Qur’aan, it was reported with a saheeh isnaad from Anas (may Allaah be pleased with him) that when he completed the Qur’aan, he would gather his family together and make du’aa’ with them. If the reader makes du’aa’ when he completes the Qur’aan, and those who are present say “Ameen” to his du’aa’, this is fine.
 With regard to calling the teacher “shaykhah” , there is nothing wrong with this. Now you know, may Allaah bless you, that there is no reason not to have the celebration you have described. There is no need to read from the end of the Mus-haf and then join it to the beginning. Doing something in this manner requires evidence (daleel), because reading Qur’aan is an act of worship, and acts of worship must be done only in the manner in which the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did them, as Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Indeed in the Messenger of Allaah (Muhammad) you have a good example to follow for him who hopes for (the Meeting with) Allaah and the Last Day, and remembers Allaah much” [al-Ahzaab 33:21]
 Written by Shaykh ‘Abd-Al-Rahmaan al-Barraak
 There is a hadeeth about the person who stops for a rest immediately carrying on, which was narrated by al-Tirmidhi (may Allaah have mercy on him) from Ibn ‘Abbaas. According to this hadeeth, a man said, “O Messenger of Allaah, which deed is most beloved to Allaah? He said, “Al-haal al-murtahil.” The man said, ‘What is al-haal al-murtahil?” He said, “The one who starts from the beginning of the Qur’aan until he reaches the end, and when he stops for a rest, he immediately carries on.”
 But this hadeeth is da’eef (weak), as al-Tirmidhi (may Allaah have mercy on him) says after he quotes it: this is a ghareeb (strange) hadeeth which we only know from Ibn ‘Abbaas with this isnaad, and this isnaad is not strong.
 Hence Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him) said in al-I’laam (p.289, part2), after he mentioned this hadeeth: Some of them understood from this that when a person has finished reading the whole Qur’aan, he should then read al-Faatihah and three verses of Soorat al-Baqarah, because he stopped when he completed it, and he continued when he started again. But none of the Sahaabah or Taabi’een did this, and none of the imaams regarded it as mustahabb (encouraged). What is referred to in the hadeeth is when a person returns from one military campaign and immediately joins another, or every time he completes one good deed, he starts another which he  completes as he did the first one. But what some readers do is not what was meant in the hadeeth at all. And Allaah is the source of strength.