Surah Al-Baqarah takes about two hours to recite at a steady pace: 2 hours 1 minute in Mishary Alafasy’s complete recording. Across the eight full recordings we timed, it runs from 1 hour 27 minutes with Saud ash-Shuraim to 3 hours 20 minutes with Mahmoud Khalil al-Husary.
On paper, it’s 286 ayat over 48 pages of the 604-page Madani mushaf, which makes it the longest surah in the Quran by a wide margin. If two hours in one evening is a stretch, three sittings of about 40 minutes each will carry you through it, starting at the top of page 2, page 18 and page 34.
At a glance
- Time to recite: about 2 hours at a steady pace, 1 hr 27 min at a quick pace, 3 hr 20 min at a slow one.
- Pages: 48, from page 2 to page 49, which comes to 711 lines.
- Ayat: 286, grouped into 40 rukus.
- Juz (para): nearly two and a half. The end of juz 1, all of juz 2 and the opening of juz 3.
- Words: about 6,100 in Arabic, about 12,600 in the Saheeh International English.
- In three sittings: roughly 40 minutes each at a steady pace.
How long does Al-Baqarah take with each reciter?
| Reciter | Full Al-Baqarah |
|---|---|
| Saud ash-Shuraim | 1 hr 27 min |
| Abdur-Rahman as-Sudais | 1 hr 39 min |
| Yasser ad-Dossari | 2 hr 1 min |
| Mishary Alafasy | 2 hr 1 min |
| Muhammad Siddiq al-Minshawi | 2 hr 17 min |
| Abdul Basit Abdus-Samad | 2 hr 24 min |
| Mahmoud Khalil al-Husary | 3 hr 20 min |
| Al-Husary, teaching recording | 3 hr 53 min |
These come from the complete recordings, basmala included, rounded to the nearest minute. We timed them the same way as every other surah in our reading-time guide, so you can compare Al-Baqarah with anything else you recite.
Shuraim and Sudais are the two quick recordings, both around 1.8 to 2 minutes a page and steady from start to finish. Alafasy and Dossari sit right in the middle, and the median of the seven ordinary recordings is Alafasy’s 2 hours 1 minute, which is why we give “about two hours” as the answer. Husary’s teaching recording runs longest because it leaves a gap after each ayah for the listener to repeat. It’s a learning tool, built for repeating after him, so it isn’t a fair guide to a normal reading pace.
How many pages, ayat and juz is Al-Baqarah?
Al-Baqarah fills pages 2 to 49 of the Madani mushaf: 48 pages, 711 lines, 286 ayat. Page 2 has only six lines of text inside its decorated border, so it goes by quickly. Full 15-line pages start on page 3.
In South Asia people often ask how many para it is. Para is another word for juz, and Al-Baqarah spreads across three of them:
- Juz 1: ayat 1 to 141, pages 2 to 21. Al-Fatihah on page 1 is the only part of juz 1 that isn’t Al-Baqarah.
- Juz 2: ayat 142 to 252, pages 22 to 41. The whole juz is Al-Baqarah.
- Juz 3: ayat 253 to 286, pages 42 to 49. Al-Baqarah takes 8 of the juz’s 20 pages, and Ali ‘Imran carries on from page 50.
Two landmarks help when you’re flicking through. Ayat al-Kursi (2:255) sits on page 42, the first page of juz 3. And the longest ayah in the whole Quran, 2:282 on recording debts, takes up all 15 lines of page 48 on its own.
Why is Surah Al-Baqarah so long?
It’s a Madinan surah, and much of it sets out practical guidance in detail rather than in a line or two. Fasting gets five ayat of its own (2:183 to 187), with the rules for the nights of Ramadan spelled out. Hajj and umrah follow from 2:196. And the debt ayah, 2:282, walks through who writes the contract, who witnesses it and what to do if a witness can’t be found, which is why one ayah fills a whole page.
Can you read Al-Baqarah in one sitting, or over three days?
Yes, if you’ve got about two hours and a quiet room. A weekend morning or a free evening is enough. If two hours in one go isn’t realistic this week, split it. There are two ways to do that.
By juz. This follows the markers already printed in your mushaf, but the pieces come out uneven. At Alafasy’s pace the juz 1 part takes 51 minutes, juz 2 takes 50 and the last stretch only 20. If you’d rather have two sittings, break at 2:142 on page 22: about 51 minutes, then 70.
Into three equal sittings of 16 pages. This is the split we’d pick, because each part comes out close to the same length.
| Sitting | Shuraim | Alafasy | Husary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pages 2 to 17 | 28 min | 40 min | 63 min |
| Pages 18 to 33 | 30 min | 42 min | 69 min |
| Pages 34 to 49 | 29 min | 39 min | 68 min |
So three days at roughly 40 minutes each. The first sitting opens with 2:1, 2:113 starts page 18 and 2:216 starts page 34, so each sitting begins at the top of a page and you never have to hunt for where you stopped.
If you’d like to recite along with a reciter, the mushaf in Quran Memorizer plays the recitation while you follow the same Madani pages, and you can jump straight to page 18 or page 34 by page number when you sit down for the next part. On iPhone and iPad the whole mushaf works offline too.
Is it fine to read Al-Baqarah over several days?
We don’t issue rulings, so here’s what scholars we checked have said. Shaykh Faraz Rabbani of SeekersGuidance wrote that the virtues of reciting Al-Baqarah still apply when it’s recited over several days, since the texts don’t require one sitting. Mufti Ebrahim Salejee said reciting it in three parts at home is valid. And a Darul Uloom Deoband fatwa said sincere recitation brings benefit whether you read it daily or only now and then, and it sets no fixed number of days. We didn’t find a scholar who required one sitting. Ask your own teacher if you’re unsure.
A well-known narration about reciting Al-Baqarah at home is in Sahih Muslim. The Prophet ﷺ told people not to turn their houses into graveyards, and said Shaytan flees from a house where Surah Al-Baqarah is recited (Sahih Muslim 780, sahih). It mentions no time limit and nothing about one sitting.
How long will it take in your own voice?
Time yourself on one page and multiply by 48. Use a full page from the middle of the surah, because page 2 is short and will flatter you.
For reference, Shuraim averages 1.8 minutes a page (87 minutes over 48 pages), Alafasy 2.5 and Husary 4.2. Here’s how that plays out for an ordinary reader:
| Your pace per page | Whole surah |
|---|---|
| 2 min | 1 hr 36 min |
| 3 min | 2 hr 24 min |
| 4 min | 3 hr 12 min |
Around two minutes a page is roughly hadr pace, the quicker style where every tajweed rule is still kept. Three or four minutes is nearer to tartil, the slow, measured recitation Allah commands in Al-Muzzammil:
“Or add to it, and recite the Qur’ān with measured recitation.”
Al-Muzzammil 73:4, Saheeh International translation. Compare translations on quran.com
If you’re still learning to read fluently, expect four minutes a page or more at first, and don’t worry about it. It’s the same 48 pages, and they’ll get quicker every time you come back to them. Our hifz vocabulary guide explains hadr, tadwir and tartil if the terms are new to you.
How long is it in English?
The Saheeh International translation of Al-Baqarah runs to about 12,600 words. A 2019 review of reading-speed studies by Marc Brysbaert put average silent reading of English non-fiction at 238 words a minute, which gives about 53 minutes for the whole surah. Read aloud, it’s closer to 70. Other translations are longer or shorter, and Saheeh International’s bracketed words add a little.
Only have a couple of minutes tonight?
The last two ayat, 2:285 and 2:286, take about a minute and a half at Alafasy’s pace and under a minute at Shuraim’s. Our page on memorizing the last two ayat of Al-Baqarah covers the hadith about reciting them at night.
How long does it take to memorize Al-Baqarah?
Two hours to read becomes months to memorize: about five months at five lines a day, or roughly seven weeks at a page a day. We worked through the real day count in how long it takes to memorize Surah Al-Baqarah.
Questions people ask
How long is Surah Al-Baqarah in hours?
About two hours at a steady pace. In the full recordings we timed, it takes 1 hr 27 min with Saud ash-Shuraim, 2 hr 1 min with Mishary Alafasy and 3 hr 20 min with Mahmoud Khalil al-Husary.
How many pages is Surah Al-Baqarah?
48 pages in the 604-page Madani mushaf, from page 2 to page 49, or 711 lines on the 15-line layout.
How many para is Surah Al-Baqarah?
Nearly two and a half: the end of juz 1, all of juz 2 and the first 8 pages of juz 3.
How many ayat and rukus are in Surah Al-Baqarah?
286 ayat in 40 rukus.
Can I read Surah Al-Baqarah over three days?
Scholars we checked, including Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and Mufti Ebrahim Salejee, have said splitting it is fine, and three 16-page sittings take about 40 minutes each.
Revising Al-Baqarah
If you’ve memorized some or all of it, reading the whole surah once a week works well for revision, because 48 pages over three 40-minute sittings fits into an ordinary week and every page gets recited at least once in it.
When you want to check yourself rather than read, the Quran Memorizer mushaf lets you hide part or all of the page and recite from memory (every hide level comes with Premium), and the free hifz test checks whether you can recall the ayah that comes next. For a section-by-section plan, see how to memorize Surah Al-Baqarah.
Pick a day this week for pages 2 to 17. The other two sittings follow from there.
