Juz 3

A juz (plural ajza), also called a para in South Asia, is one of thirty roughly equal divisions of the written Quran. The division is made by length rather than by meaning, so a juz usually begins and ends in the middle of a surah; each is further split into two hizb and each hizb into quarters. Reciting one juz a night completes the whole Quran across a lunar month, a rhythm tied above all to Ramadan, when the entire text is recited in the nightly tarawih prayers. This portion spans Al-Baqara 2:253 through Al-i-Imran 3:92. It contains two of the most recited passages in Islam: the Throne Verse (Ayat al-Kursi, 2:255) proclaiming God's sustaining sovereignty, and the closing supplication of Al-Baqara (2:285-286). It then opens Al-i-Imran with the family of Imran, the annunciation and birth of Jesus, and the dialogue with the Christian delegation of Najran.

Ayat al-Kursi, the Throne Verse (2:255) that opens the second half of this portion, is reported in multiple hadith collections as the single verse the Prophet identified as the greatest in the Quran, and its recitation after the five daily prayers and at night is widely practised across the Muslim world as a supplication for protection, a devotional weight matched by very few other individual verses. The closing two verses of Al-Baqara (2:285-286), which this juz also carries in full, are likewise the subject of hadith describing them as sufficient protection recited at night, one of several passages whose reported virtues have shaped ordinary daily recitation far beyond the formal juz and hizb divisions.

Juz 3 closes out Al-Baqara's final thirty-four verses, including the Throne Verse and the surah's closing supplication, before opening Al-i-Imran and carrying its first ninety-two of two hundred verses, just under half. The juz boundary falls inside Al-i-Imran's extended engagement with the Christian delegation of Najran, splitting a single sustained argument across two nightly recitation portions rather than respecting its own internal structure.

In communities that pace the nightly tarawih prayers of Ramadan at one juz per night, this is customarily the third night's portion, though many mosques recite faster to finish early in the month or slower to spread the reading further, and some congregations instead divide the whole Quran among thirty reciters for a single collective khatm. Huffaz reviewing memorised portions often pace themselves by a juz's two hizb and four quarter-hizb divisions rather than by surah, since these evenly sized units make a consistent daily review schedule possible regardless of where a surah boundary falls. Printed Mushafs typically mark each juz's opening in the margin with a small medallion inscribed with its number, a page-level convention distinct from the finer hizb and quarter-hizb marks placed within the text itself to guide reciters mid-portion.