How Long Does Surah 73 Take to Recite? Minutes and Words Measured
Short answer: reciting Surah 73 takes between about 3 and a quarter and a little over 6 minutes for well-known qaris, and around 4 to 5 minutes at a normal, careful pace. It has 20 ayat, about 200 Arabic words, 2 rukus, and fills roughly two pages of a standard printed mushaf. We timed four famous reciters ayah by ayah to get these figures.
Recitation time by reciter
We measured the length of every ayah recording, from ayah 1 to ayah 20, for four widely followed qaris. The totals below do not include the Bismillah or the pauses between files.
| Reciter | Style | Total time | Ayah 20 alone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais | Brisk, as in Haram prayers | 3 min 20 s | 1 min 17 s |
| Mishary Rashid Alafasy | Moderate, melodic | 3 min 58 s | 1 min 30 s |
| Abdul Basit Abdus Samad (Murattal) | Slow, with long vowels | 4 min 53 s | 1 min 47 s |
| Mahmoud Khalil Al-Husary | Very measured, teaching pace | 6 min 12 s | 2 min 13 s |
The difference between the fastest and slowest is almost three minutes. Neither is "right". They reflect different styles of correct recitation, from the brisker pace common in long congregational prayers to the slower pace used for teaching.
Where the time goes
The most striking pattern is how much of the surah's length sits in its last ayah. For every reciter we measured, ayah 20 took between 36 and 39 percent of the total time. The first nineteen ayat together took between about 2 minutes (Sudais) and 4 minutes (Husary).
- Shortest ayah: ayah 2, "qumil-layla illa qalila", which took between 2.7 and 7.2 seconds depending on the reciter.
- Longest of the first nineteen: ayah 15, about Pharaoh, for three of the four reciters (18 to 25 seconds). For Sudais it was ayah 19, at about 12 seconds.
- Longest overall: ayah 20, between 77 and 133 seconds.
This matters if you are planning to recite the surah in prayer. If you divide it over two rakats, a natural split is ayat 1 to 19 in the first rakat and ayah 20 in the second. The two halves are not equal, but the first rakat of a prayer is usually the longer one, so it fits the Sunnah well.
Ayah by ayah timings
For readers who like the detail, here is the length of each ayah in seconds for all four reciters. It shows clearly how evenly paced the first nineteen ayat are, and how the final ayah stands apart.
| Ayah | Sudais | Alafasy | Abdul Basit | Husary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2.9 | 5.7 | 5.7 | 8.5 |
| 2 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 4.2 | 7.2 |
| 3 | 3.4 | 6.1 | 6.7 | 8.9 |
| 4 | 5.6 | 5.6 | 6.6 | 10 |
| 5 | 4.8 | 6.3 | 8.1 | 10.9 |
| 6 | 6.4 | 7.6 | 10 | 12.6 |
| 7 | 4.7 | 6.2 | 8.1 | 8.8 |
| 8 | 5 | 5.5 | 7.3 | 9.8 |
| 9 | 7.7 | 8.9 | 12.6 | 14.9 |
| 10 | 6.3 | 7.4 | 9.1 | 12.3 |
| 11 | 6.3 | 7.5 | 9.7 | 13.4 |
| 12 | 5 | 7.9 | 9.3 | 10.7 |
| 13 | 5.9 | 6.7 | 8.3 | 11.5 |
| 14 | 7.4 | 8.6 | 11.9 | 14.2 |
| 15 | 10.8 | 18.1 | 20.3 | 24.5 |
| 16 | 6.5 | 7.4 | 10.3 | 12.1 |
| 17 | 10.2 | 8.6 | 12.1 | 14.1 |
| 18 | 9.4 | 9.7 | 11.8 | 15.6 |
| 19 | 12.1 | 10.9 | 14 | 18.8 |
| 20 | 77.3 | 89.6 | 106.8 | 133.3 |
Why reciters take different times
All four qaris recite the same words with correct tajweed, so why does one take almost twice as long as another? A few reasons explain most of the gap:
- Length of the long vowels. Some rules of madd allow a range of lengths. A reciter who consistently chooses the longer option adds seconds to every ayah.
- Purpose of the recording. Husary's murattal recordings were made with learners in mind, so every letter is crisp and unhurried. Recordings of prayer leaders tend to be brisker.
- Pauses within long ayat. In ayah 20, reciters choose different stopping points. More stops mean more breaths and a longer total.
- Melody. A more melodic style stretches some syllables. This is why Abdul Basit is noticeably slower than Alafasy even though both are moderate in pace.
For your own reading, the best pace is the one at which every letter is clear and you can follow the meaning. If you are learning, copying a slower reciter is usually wiser than copying a faster one.
The surah in numbers
- Surah number
- 73 of 114
- Ayat
- 20
- Arabic words
- About 199 to 200, depending on how particles are counted. Ayah 20 alone has 78 words, close to two-fifths of the total.
- Shortest ayah by words
- Ayah 1, the opening address "O you who are wrapped up", just two Arabic words
- Rukus
- 2 in most Indo-Pak mushafs: ayat 1 to 19, then ayah 20
- Para
- 29, known as Tabarakallazi
- Position in the para
- The seventh of eleven surahs, after Al-Jinn and before Al-Muddaththir
- Pages
- About two pages in the common 15-line Madani mushaf, and similar in most 16-line Indo-Pak copies
How long for your own reading?
The times above are for expert reciters. For an ordinary reader, these rough estimates are more realistic:
| What you are doing | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Fluent reader, normal pace | 4 to 5 minutes |
| Still learning to read Arabic | 8 to 15 minutes |
| Reading the Arabic plus a translation | 10 to 15 minutes |
| Reciting from memory in two rakats of salah | 7 to 10 minutes including ruku and sujud |
| Memorising the whole surah | About two weeks at 15 to 20 minutes a day |
If you are a slow reader, there is no reason to feel bad about it. Slow, careful recitation is exactly what the surah itself asks for in ayah 4. To see how your pace compares, time yourself against any of the four reciters by playing the full surah and reading along.
Does it fit into tahajjud?
Yes, easily. Two rakats of tahajjud with Surah 73, including the time for ruku, sujud and a short dua, take around ten minutes for most people. That is one of the reasons it is a popular choice for the night prayer, alongside its subject matter. If you are new to the night prayer, our beginner's walkthrough of tahajjud explains the steps, the rakats and the witr.
Reading offline
Many people prefer to time their reading with a printed copy, especially during load-shedding or while travelling. The printable Arabic edition keeps the surah on a few pages so you can read it in one sitting without scrolling.
How we measured
We loaded the individual ayah recordings for each reciter from the Islamic Network recitation library and read the duration of each audio file, rounded to a tenth of a second. Totals are the sum of the twenty ayat. Small differences from other sources are normal, since recordings include short silences at the start and end, and some recitations are published as single files rather than ayah by ayah. Word counts are from the Uthmani Arabic text, counting words separated by spaces.
Quick answers
How many minutes is Surah 73?
About 3 and a quarter to just over 6 minutes for professional reciters, and 4 to 5 minutes for a fluent reader.
How many ayat does it have?
Twenty.
How many rukus are there?
Two in most mushafs printed in Pakistan and India.
Can I recite the whole surah in one rakat?
Yes. There is no rule against it, and at a normal pace it adds only four or five minutes to the rakat. Many people find it easier to split it over two rakats, with ayat 1 to 19 in the first and ayah 20 in the second, especially in the night prayer.
Which ayah is the longest?
Ayah 20, which alone takes well over a minute to recite and contains 78 of the surah's words.