Question: 

Is the narration that mentions that Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and Shaykh al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah completed reciting the Qur’aan 80 or 81 times while in prison authentic?

Answer:

Yes, it is authentic.

Hafidh Ibn Kathir rahimahullah wrote:

“His [Shaikhul-Islaam’s] brother,Zaynud-deen Aburrahman, informed those present that he and the Shaikh rahimahullah completed the Quran eighty times since entering the jail and they begin the eighty-first time. We stopped at the end of the verse of Iqtarabat-Saa’atah [suratu-lQamar]:

إِنَّ الْمُتَّقِينَ فِي جَنَّاتٍ وَنَهَرٍ فِي مَقْعَدِ صِدْقٍ عِنْدَ مَلِيكٍ مقتدر

Verily, The Muttaqun (pious), will be in the midst of Gardens and Rivers (Paradise). In a seat of truth (i.e. Paradise), near the Omnipotent King (Allah, the All-Blessed, the Most High, the Owner of Majesty and Honour)

[54:54-55]

So then two pious Shaikhs, Abdullah ibn al-Muhiib and Abdullah ibn az-Zurai’ al-Dareer, and Shaikhul Islaam liked their recitations, begin reciting the remaining [portion of the Quran] beginning at surahtul Rahmaan until they finished the Quran. I was present and I heard and I saw”. [Bidyaah wan-Nihayah (18/300)]

Ibn Abdul-Haadi rahimahullah said:

“He [Ibn Taymiyyah] completed the Quran in the jail eighty times or eighty one times. He stopped at the end of the Iqtarabat-Saa’atah [suratul-Qamar]:

إِنَّ الْمُتَّقِينَ فِي جَنَّاتٍ وَنَهَرٍ فِي مَقْعَدِ صِدْقٍ عِنْدَ مَلِيكٍ مقتدر

Verily, The Muttaqun (pious), will be in the midst of Gardens and Rivers (Paradise). In a seat of truth (i.e. Paradise), near the Omnipotent King (Allah, the All-Blessed, the Most High, the Owner of Majesty and Honour)

[54:54-55]

Then it was completed for him after he died and he was lying down” [al-Uqood ad-Dariyyah pg. 290-291]

It was also mentinod by Ibn ul-‘Imaad in Shatharaat adh-Dhahab (8/150) and by Hafidh Ibn Rajab in Dhayl at-Tabaqaat al-Hanabilah (4/525)]

And Allah Knows Best

Translated by

Faisal Ibn Abdul Qaadir Ibn Hassan
Abu Sulaymaan