Khatam Quran: Meaning, How Long It Takes and a 30-Day Plan
To khatam the Quran is to read it from the first page to the last. Read one juz a day and you finish in 30 days, which is why so many people aim for a khatam in Ramadan. This page explains what khatam means, how long it takes at different speeds, and how to plan it around work, school and family, with a path to follow if you can’t read fluently yet.
- 40+ students have completed a khatam with us
- Free khatam calculator
- Printable tracker for families
30
juz in the Quran
604
pages in the Madinah mushaf
~40 min
to read one juz with Tajweed
40+
of our students have completed a khatam
In short
- Khatam means reading the whole Quran once, from Surah Al-Fatihah to Surah An-Nas.
- One juz a day, about 20 pages in the 604-page mushaf, finishes the Quran in 30 days.
- Reading with Tajweed, a juz takes about 40 minutes, so a whole khatam is roughly 20 hours.
- Spread across the five daily prayers, that’s 4 pages after each one.
- If you can’t read fluently yet, read correctly first. Speed comes later.
The basics
What Does Khatam Quran Mean?
“Khatam” comes from the Arabic khatm, to seal or complete. A khatam of the Quran (khatam al-Quran) is one full reading, from Surah Al-Fatihah to Surah An-Nas.
Three words often get mixed up:
Khatam
The reading itself, the whole Quran once.
Majlis khatam
The gathering held to mark it, usually when a child finishes.
Berkhatam
The Malay word for completing the Quran. Many families use it for the ceremony too.
A khatam isn’t the same as memorising. Learning the Quran by heart is hafal (hifz), and that takes years.
Local guide
Khatam in Singapore
You don’t have to read alone. There are several ways to do a khatam with others here.
Mosque tadarus
Many mosques run regular sessions where people read together and work through the Quran over weeks or months. Some are for women only, and a few run online too.
Ramadan khatam nights
Mosques often complete a khatam in the last ten nights. In Ramadan 2026, Masjid Jamek Queenstown held its Majlis Khatam Al-Quran on 14 March, and Ba’alwie Mosque held one on the night of the 27th. Some groups read one juz together every night of the month.
A Khataman before Ramadan
Masjid Abdul Aleem Siddique has held one every year since 2022, with more than 200 people taking part, young and old.
Bigger community events
In September 2026, a Majlis Khatam Al-Quran was held at the Singapore EXPO during a weekend of Quran programmes.
A majlis khatam at home
When a child finishes, families invite relatives and a few friends home or to a mosque function room. The guru mengaji or ustaz leads the last reading and the doa khatam. Many families follow with marhaban and a kenduri, usually with pulut kuning. Most of these gatherings are small. Towards the end, the child often recites the short surahs, known as Surah Lazim, so it helps to have them memorised beforehand.
Timing
How Long Does It Take to Khatam the Quran?
The Quran has 30 juz and 114 surahs. The Madinah mushaf, the 15-line copy most people read from, has 604 pages, so a juz is about 20 pages. Each juz is split into two hizb of about 10 pages, which is useful if half a juz a day suits you better.
Using a different mushaf? Not every mushaf has 604 pages. Copies with bigger print and 13 lines a page, which you’ll find in many homes and madrasahs, run to about 850 pages. A juz there is closer to 28 pages. The Quran is the same, only the layout is different, so it’s easier to plan by juz. If you’d rather count pages, take the last page number of your copy and divide it by the number of days.
| Pages a day | About how long to finish |
|---|---|
| 2 pages | 10 months |
| 5 pages | 4 months |
| 10 pages (half a juz) | 2 months |
| 20 pages (1 juz) | 30 days |
| 40 pages (2 juz) | 15 days |
Speed depends on how fluently you read and whether you read with Tajweed. In our classes, someone who reads with Tajweed but hasn’t memorised the Quran usually takes about 40 minutes for one juz. A whole khatam comes to roughly 20 hours of reading.
Pick a pace you can keep on a busy weekday, not one that only works on a quiet Sunday. Five pages every day gets you to the end sooner than 40 pages one weekend and nothing after.
Is a 30-day khatam realistic for you?
Time yourself on one page at your normal speed, with Tajweed.
About 2 minutes or less
A juz a day, about 40 minutes, is within reach.
3 to 4 minutes
Try half a juz a day and finish in 60 days.
Longer, or you stop on most words
Work on your reading first. The section on reading fluently below explains how.
Khatam calculator
Choose how many days you have and which mushaf you use. The calculator works out your pages a day, pages after each prayer and reading time.
Khatam Calculator
Choose your goal and your mushaf. The plan updates as you type.
Your daily plan
Pages are rounded to the nearest page, so some days need a page more. Reading times are estimates – everyone reads at their own pace.
Is every page taking longer than you’d like?
Speed comes from reading correctly, again and again, with someone listening. In a live one-to-one class, the teacher hears each mistake and fixes it as you go. Your first 3 classes are free.
Ramadan plan
A 30-Day Khatam Plan for Ramadan
One juz a day finishes the Quran in Ramadan. That’s about 20 pages, and it’s much easier spread across the day than read in one sitting.
- After Subuh 4 pages
- After Zohor 4 pages
- After Asar 4 pages
- After Maghrib 4 pages
- After Isyak 4 pages
Total: 20 pages a day, which is 1 juz. Thirty days of this and you’ve read the whole Quran.
A few things help the plan hold up past the first week:
Start in Syaaban
Read a juz or two before Ramadan begins. Ramadan may have 29 days instead of 30, and a head start means you won’t need an extra juz on the last night.
Missed a day?
Add a page or two after each prayer for the next few days. Two juz in one night usually means rushing.
Working full time?
Plan around your working day as well as the prayer times. A few pages after sahur, a few on the MRT with a pocket mushaf or an app, some at lunch and the rest after Terawih. Short sittings add up to a juz without a late night.
Keep track
Tick off each juz as you finish it. Our free printable 30-day khatam tracker has a box for every prayer, and a second page for a family khatam.
Other deadlines, from 7 to 60 days
Not every goal is Ramadan. Here’s what each deadline means per day in the 604-page mushaf:
| Finish in | Juz a day | Pages a day | Pages after each prayer | Time a day* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 days | ½ | about 10 | 2 | about 20 min |
| 30 days | 1 | about 20 | 4 | about 40 min |
| 20 days | 1½ | about 30 | 6 | about 1 hour |
| 15 days | 2 | about 40 | 8 | about 1 hr 20 min |
| 10 days | 3 | about 60 | 12 | about 2 hours |
| 7 days | about 4½ | about 86 | about 17 | about 3 hours |
*At about 40 minutes a juz, reading with Tajweed. If you read more slowly, give yourself more days. The shorter plans are for people who already read fluently and have the hours. For most working adults and families, 30 or 60 days is the realistic choice.
Doing a khatam as a family or group
Families and mosque groups often share a khatam, with the 30 juz divided so everyone finishes together. MuslimSG suggests this split for a 30-day group khatam.
It works well with children. Younger readers take Juz Amma, which has the short surahs, and the adults take the longer juz. Agree on a finishing date and check in once a week. The family khatam sheet (page 2 of the tracker) has a line for each juz.
| People in the group | Juz each |
|---|---|
| 5 | 6 |
| 10 | 3 |
| 15 | 2 |
| 30 | 1 |
Print your 30-day khatam tracker
Two A4 pages: a box for every prayer across 30 days, and a family sheet with a line for each juz. Free to download, no sign-up.
Tajweed first
Read It Correctly Before You Read It Fast
When people rush to finish, Tajweed is usually the first thing to slip. Our teachers hear the same mistakes every Ramadan. Short vowels get stretched like a madd, ghunnah is dropped, and idgham and iqlab are read as if the rules weren’t there.
These aren’t only matters of style. In Arabic, changing one letter or one vowel can change the word.
| ✓ Read correctly | ✗ Read wrongly | What the word becomes |
|---|---|---|
| قُلْ (qul), with the deep ق | كُلْ (kul), with a light ك | “Say” becomes “eat” |
| عَلِيم (‘alim), with ع from the throat | أَلِيم (alim), with a plain hamzah | “All-Knowing” becomes “painful” |
| قَالَ (qala), short at the end | قَالَا (qala), stretched at the end | “He said” becomes “the two of them said” |
So speed only helps once correct reading has become a habit. We teach step by step for that reason, from the first Iqra book up to advanced Quran reading with Tajweed.
Rule of thumb: if a juz a day means rushing through letters, read half a juz carefully and finish after Ramadan.
Not sure your Tajweed is right?
Read a page to one of our teachers. They’ll tell you what to fix first, whether it’s a letter, the length of a vowel or a Tajweed rule.
For beginners
Not Reading Fluently Yet? Start Here
A juz a day assumes you can already read with some ease. If every word still takes effort, set that target aside for now.
Plenty of adults in Singapore are in the same position. Some learnt as children, stopped, and are coming back years later. Others never learnt at all and feel awkward saying so at 20, 30 or 50. There’s no shame in starting late. Everyone who reads the Quran today once started with the first letter.
For your first Ramadan, aim for this instead:
- Get the letters and sounds right. If they’re shaky, start with our free Arabic alphabet chart.
- Read Juz Amma correctly. It’s the 30th juz, with the short surahs you already hear in prayer.
- Move on to longer pages. With regular practice, your speed picks up, and a full khatam becomes a goal you can actually reach.
Learn with a teacher, at your own pace
Reading with a teacher helps most at this stage, because mistakes you repeat alone turn into habits. See how our one-to-one Quran classes for adults work. If you already read but want to read correctly, look at our Tajweed classes.
For parents
Your Child’s First Khatam
For most children, the first khatam comes after the Iqra books. At five days a week, Iqra usually takes at least six months. Reading the Quran fluently takes about another year after that, and every child moves at their own pace.
40+More than 40 of our students have completed a khatam with their teacher so far. Most got there the same way, with Iqra first and then reading the Quran with Tajweed, one step at a time.
At home, the most useful thing you can do is listen to your child read the lesson their teacher set, a few minutes most days. Try not to make it a race with cousins or classmates. Children who feel pushed start to rush, and rushing brings mistakes.
Getting ready for the majlis khatam
On the day, the child usually reads the closing surahs of the Quran in front of the guru mengaji and the family, often from Surah Ad-Dhuha to Surah An-Nas, and everyone then makes the doa khatam together. The order varies between families.
Practise the closing surahs at home a few times beforehand so your child feels confident in front of relatives. Some families give a small gift to mark the day, such as the child’s own mushaf or a framed “Khatam Mubarak” card, something to keep long after the kenduri.
Helping your child towards their first khatam?
See how our Iqra classes and Quran classes for kids work. Classes are live and one-to-one, and parents can sit in.
Next steps
What to Do After a Khatam
Many people start their next khatam straight away. Others take the chance to go further:
Polish your Tajweed
A teacher will pick up habits you don’t notice when you read alone. See our Quran reading with Tajweed classes.
Learn what the ayat mean
When you know what the ayat say, you notice more on your next khatam. See our Tafsir classes.
Memorise
Start with the surahs you love most. Read about our Tahfiz classes.
Du’a
Du’a After a Khatam
Many Muslims make this du’a when they finish the Quran. It is recorded in Ithaf al-Sadah al-Muttaqin (vol. 4, p. 496). At a majlis khatam in Singapore, the guru mengaji or ustaz often leads a longer doa khatam as well.
اللَّهُمَّ آنِسْ وَحْشَتِي فِي قَبْرِي، اللَّهُمَّ ارْحَمْنِي بِالْقُرْآنِ الْعَظِيمِ، وَاجْعَلْهُ لِي إِمَامًا وَنُورًا وَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةً، اللَّهُمَّ ذَكِّرْنِي مِنْهُ مَا نَسِيتُ، وَعَلِّمْنِي مِنْهُ مَا جَهِلْتُ، وَارْزُقْنِي تِلَاوَتَهُ آنَاءَ اللَّيْلِ وَآنَاءَ النَّهَارِ، وَاجْعَلْهُ لِي حُجَّةً يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ
Transliteration
Allahumma anis wahshati fi qabri. Allahummar-hamni bil-Qur’anil-‘azim, waj’alhu li imaman wa nuran wa hudan wa rahmah. Allahumma dhakkirni minhu ma nasitu, wa ‘allimni minhu ma jahiltu, warzuqni tilawatahu ana’al-layli wa ana’an-nahar, waj’alhu li hujjatan ya Rabbal-‘alamin.
Meaning
O Allah, comfort me in the loneliness of my grave. O Allah, have mercy on me through the Great Quran, and make it for me a guide, a light, guidance and mercy. O Allah, remind me of what I have forgotten of it, teach me what I do not know of it, and let me recite it through the hours of the night and the day. Make it a proof in my favour, O Lord of the worlds.
FAQs
Khatam Quran: Common Questions
How many pages are in the Quran? Do all Qurans have 604 pages?
The Madinah mushaf, the 15-line copy most people use, has 604 pages. A 13-line copy has about 850. The text is the same in both, only the layout differs.
How many pages is one juz?
About 20 pages in the Madinah mushaf, and about 28 in a 13-line mushaf.
How long does it take to khatam the Quran?
It depends on how much you read each day. One juz a day (about 20 pages) takes 30 days. Five pages a day takes about four months.
How long does it take to read 20 pages of the Quran?
Twenty pages is about one juz. Someone who reads with Tajweed but hasn’t memorised the Quran usually takes about 40 minutes.
Can I khatam the Quran in Ramadan if I’m a slow reader?
Possibly, if you start early and read every day. If a juz a day means rushing, read less and read it well. You can finish after Ramadan.
If I read for an hour or two a day, how long will a khatam take?
At about 40 minutes a juz, an hour a day covers about 1½ juz, so you’d finish in around 20 days. Two hours a day covers about 3 juz, which is around 10 days.
How many pages a day do I need to finish the Quran in a year?
Two pages a day is enough. 604 pages over 365 days is just under 2 a day, so you’d finish in about 10 months with time to spare.
How many pages a day to finish the Quran twice in Ramadan?
About 40 pages, or 2 juz, which is roughly 8 pages after each prayer. With work and fasting that’s a lot, so only aim for it once a single khatam feels comfortable.
How can I complete the Quran in 7 days?
You’d need about 4½ juz a day, roughly 17 pages after each prayer. Many mushafs mark seven sections (manzil) for this. It suits fluent readers with plenty of time. For most people, 30 days is more realistic.
Do we have to hold a majlis khatam?
It’s a family custom, and families do it differently. Some hold a kenduri, others keep it to a short du’a at home. Your child reaching the khatam and reading well is what counts.
What is the difference between khatam and hafal?
Khatam means reading the whole Quran from start to finish. Hafal (hifz) means memorising it, which takes much longer. Read about our Tahfiz classes if your child wants to memorise.
When do children usually do their first khatam?
After they finish the Iqra books and can read the Quran fluently. There’s no fixed age.
Want a Teacher to Read With You?
If you’d like someone to listen to your reading and correct it as you go, our online Quran classes in Singapore are live and one-to-one. More than 40 of our students have already completed a khatam with their teacher. Classes are for adults and children, with female teachers for women and girls, and the first 3 classes are free.
- Live one-to-one classes
- 12 Hafiz and Hafiza teachers
- Female teachers for women and girls
- From SGD 35 a month
- First 3 classes free