The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Whoever recites the Qur’an and acts upon it, then on the Day of Judgment his parents will be crowned with a crown whose radiance will be more beautiful than the light of the sun that shines in your worldly homes.”
(Mishkat: 2139)

Hazrat Ali (رضي الله عنه) narrates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Whoever recites the Qur’an, memorizes it, declares its lawful (ḥalāl) as lawful, and its unlawful (ḥarām) as unlawful, Allah will admit him into Paradise and will accept his intercession on behalf of ten members of his household for whom Hell had become obligatory.”
(Narrated by Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Dārimī – Mishkat: 2141)

These are the ahadith that are often quoted in our society to highlight the virtue of the Ḥāfiẓ of the Qur’an.

However, two important points must be noted in these narrations:

1. Both of these ahadith are weak (ḍa‘īf) in terms of their chain of narration.

2. The core message within these ahadith is often left out when they are shared. Instead, some Ḥuffāẓ (memorizers of the Qur’an) tend to exaggerate or add to the meaning from their own side.

Whereas the wording of the hadith clearly states:

“Whoever recites the Qur’an and acts upon it…”

And in the second hadith:

“Whoever recites the Qur’an, memorizes it, and declares its ḥalāl as ḥalāl and its ḥarām as ḥarām…”

In other words, mere memorization of the Qur’an is not sufficient. The true virtue and reward lie in understanding, living by, and practicing the teachings of the Qur’an in one’s life.