Does reading the chapter of al-Ikhlas gain man the reward of a khatm al-Quran?

I heard that there is a khtam al-Quran made with al-Ikhlas. It is said that those who do not know how to read the Quran can read al-Ikhlas once for each verse of the Quran. Is it true?

Dear Brother / Sister,

There are hadiths stating that a person who readsthe chapter of al-Ikhlas gains the reward of a khatm al-Quran.

Abu Said narrates: Once, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said to his Companions:   

"Is one of you too weak to read one third of the Quran in one night?" They said,

"Which one of us can do it?" The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said,

"Allahu Ahad, Allahus-Samad (the chapter of al-Ikhlas) is one third of the Quran." (Bukhari, Fadailul-Qur'an 13, Tawhid 1)

As for the issue of the chapter of al-Ikhlas being equal to one third of the Quran, tafsir scholars say it is because "it deals with the first one of the three main topics of the Quran: Tawhid (Oneness), Risalah (Prophethood), Akhirah (Hereafter)".

Nawawi quotes the following interpretation of Maziri: "The Quran has three parts: 'Stories, Decrees, Allah's attributes'. The chapter f al-Ikhlas summarizes Allah's attributes."

These explanations are related to one aspect of the hadiths above. There is another aspect: the thawabs gained when they are read. That is, the issue of gaining one-third of the reward gained by reading the whole Quran or gaining the reward of reading the whole Quran by reading the chapter of al-Ikhlas three times. The hadith expresses it clearly and believers have believed it since the beginning.  

The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) speaks on behalf of Allah; he informs us about sunnatullah, thawabs, sins and evaluating this or that deed. Therefore, hadiths are free from all kinds of exaggeration and estimation; they are real. That is, Allah Almighty, who made it a sunnah (sunnatullah) to write one sin for a bad deed but to write at least ten thawabs for a good deed (al-An'am 6/160) and to write thirty thousand thawabs for one deed done on the Night of Power (Laylatul-Qadr), also   made it a sunnah to write the reward of a khatm al-Quran for reading the chapter of al-Ikhlas three times, or al-Kafirun four times. Our Merciful Lord gave the duty of informing this detail to the ummah to the Messenger of Allah (pbuh). 

Instead of viewing narrations like this with hesitation, the only way that fits being a believer is to read with full submission to Allah and with the intention of gaining the reward of a khatm al-Quran in accordance with the following hadith:

"The intention of a believer is better than his deed."

Allah Almighty is merciful and generous; there is no limit to his mercy. He may give more than the thawab of a khatm al-Quran for reading the chapter of al-Ikhlas three times based on the conditions and our sincerity; He will not refute His Messenger.  

We quote a valuable explanation of Badiuzzaman Said Nursi regarding the issue:

"Each of the All-Wise Qur’an’s letters is a merit. Each is a good deed. Out of Divine grace the merits of those letters sprout and yield sometimes ten, sometimes seventy, and sometimes seven hundred, merits, like the letters of Ayat al-Kursi. Sometimes they yield one thousand five hundred, like the letters of Sura al-Ikhlas, and sometimes ten thousand, like verses recited on Layla al-Bara’a and those that coincide with other acceptable times. And sometimes they yield thirty thousand, like verses recited on the Night of Power, which are like poppy seeds in their multiplicity. The indication that that night is the equivalent to a thousand months makes it understood that on that night one letter has thirty thousand merits. Thus, the Quran cannot be balanced because its thawabs are multiplied. It may be balanced by some chapters with real thawabs.

For example, let us suppose there is a field planted with maize, one thousand plants of it. If some seeds produce seven shoots, and from each shoot a hundred grains, then a single seed becomes the equivalent of two thirds of the whole field. For example, if one seed produces ten shoots, and each yields two hundred grains, then a single seed is the equivalent of twice the original field. You can make further analogies in the same way.

Now, let us imagine the All-Wise Qur’an to be a luminous, sacred, heavenly field. Each of its letters together with its original merit is like a seed. Their shoots will not be taken into consideration. They may be compared with the Suras and verses about which are narrations concerning their merits, like Ya Sin, Ikhlas, Fatiha, Kafirun, Zilzal. For example, the Qur’an has three hundred thousand six hundred and twenty letters, and Sura al-Ikhlas together with Bismillah, sixty-nine. Three times sixty nine is two hundred and seven letters. Thus, if Sura Ya Sin’s letters are reckoned and compared with all the letters of the All-Wise Qur’an, and then multiplied ten times, it produces the following result: each letter of Sura Ya Sin has close on five hundred merits. That is, that many good deeds may be reckoned. And so, if you apply the others to this, you will understand what a subtle, fine, true, and unexaggerated truth it is." (Sözler, Yirmi Dördüncü Söz, Üçüncü Dal) (Words, Twenty-Fourth Word, Third Branch)

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