Is it true that some surahs have special merits, such as the merit of reciting Surah Al-Waqi'ah preventing poverty, and the merit of Surah Al-Mulk comforting its reciter in the grave and preventing its torment, or are these claims not supported by authentic hadiths and were said to encourage people to read the Quran?

There are authentic hadiths regarding the virtues of some surahs, such as Surah Al-Mulk and Al-Waqi'ah. Therefore, it is incorrect to say that everything narrated about the virtues of surahs is weak. Some hadith scholars have mentioned that some ascetics fabricated hadiths to encourage people to read the Qur'an. Among these is what Abu 'Ismah Nuh ibn Abi Maryam said, that he fabricated the hadith about the virtues of the Qur'an surah by surah, because people were preoccupied with Abu Hanifa's fiqh and Ibn Ishaq's battles.