Before commenting on this narration, following points always need to be kept in mind while interpreting the meaning of any Hadith:

First, unless you understand the principles on how to understand Hadith and what is its place within whole framework of religion, you will forever be faced with these predicaments where a point mentioned in a hadith would feel an isolated but complete directive of Islam and sometimes in total contradiction to principles mentioned in Quran which form basis of religion.

Secondly, Ahadith are mostly lacking their context, which means for the most of Ahadith corpus, we have no way of knowing in what context a particular narration was said by the Prophet (sws), and what was said before and after those words so that we can know the exact context of discussion. Therefore, we need to take guidance from Quran and Sunnah which are absolute and complete sources of religion..

Lastly, Ahadith always relate to matters of application related to absolute directives found in Quran and Sunnah. If taken in isolation, we will end up extracting absolute laws from matters of application and thus end up creating a jungle of mess from where it won’t be easy to come out.

To understand these points further, please refer to the following link and watch all the videos (as this is very important in understanding the Farahi School Approach, otherwise you one will always feel entrapped in contradictions):

Discussion 21789

Regarding the aforementioned Hadith, following points might be helpful in understanding its content:

1) It is said as an encouragement to people in an environment where literacy is not as common as we see today. Therefore, to encourage people to expend their time and effort in reciting and memorizing Quran or trying at least so that it can serve as means of transmission to the next generations (which it eventually did) without any doubt, not even on a single word being transmitted.

2) It is already understood that people speaking Arabic when called to memorize Quran or try hard in achieving that, they would understand its meaning as well and not do so blindly without knowing the meanings behind Quran’s verses. It was revealed in their language after all.

3) The glad tiding mentioned in Hadith is only applicable after one fulfils the criterion for redemption mentioned in several places in Quran. It is a statement of an eventual result when a person after memorizing Quran, follows it in its letter and spirit, will surely get his place with the Angels and Prophets. A hafiz with an in-depth understanding of Quran is no less than a blessing of Allah Almighty and should get His reward from the Lord and the one who tried but stayed behind a bit, will also get his reward from the Lord.

When seen in the light of these preconditions, the Hadith fits perfectly in overall framework of religion and the same can be said about the Hadith discussed earlier. More can be said about how how to interpret this Hadith and Ahadith similar to this one, but the aforementioned points will surely give a perspective on how see these in the light of Quran and Sunnah. And if someone interprets these Ahadith as an isolated condition of redemption, then this goes against the basic guidelines of Quran and basic guidelines of Justice itself..