Assalaamu alaykum. I am currently unable to read the Quran and have not found anyone who can teach me, and I was wondering if I will get a similar reward when reading transliterations of the Quran. I read Surah Al-Mulk every night and Surah Al-Kahf on Fridays and the two surahs for Fajr (I hold a paper in prayer to recite these). May Allaah reward you all, in shaa Allaah.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is not permissible for a Muslim to read the Quran if he does not know how to pronounce its letters in Arabic. Rather, he is obliged to learn the Quran in Arabic script if he wants to recite it because reading in non-Arabic letters leads to a change in the form of words or corrupting its meaning, and this is not permissible, regardless of whether one is reading aloud or silently.

Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said:

“It is not permissible for a person to recite the Quran incorrectly... a person has to recite the Quran correctly, even if it takes him five minutes to recite one word, or a quarter of an hour, while he is pronouncing it until he pronounces it in a correct way; this is more appropriate than him reciting it incorrectly; this is the obligation because the Quran is not the words of human beings, it is the words of Allaah Almighty. If you utter it incorrectly and in a manner that was not taught to us by the Prophet then it means that you falsified the words of Allaah, while falsifying the words of Allaah is forbidden. This is not the words of a human being that one is reporting its meaning ...., so a person must take his time and read slowly even if he repeats the same word several times until he pronounces it correctly; this is what he is obliged to do.”

For more benefit, please refer to fatwas 83095 and 86262.

Therefore, you must learn to recite Al-Faatihah correctly in the Arabic language, even by listening to those who recite it perfectly, it is easier, and you will certainly find someone to teach you how to recite Al-Faatihah and some short chapters.

As regards the recitation in prayer from a mus-haf (copy of the Quran) or from a paper where some chapters of the Quran are written, then there is nothing wrong with that in case of necessity if a person cannot recite without the mus-haf or without such a paper. Please refer to fatwa 88188.

Allaah knows best.