The Quran is Music to My Ears
The heartbeat, the sound of birds chirping waves hitting onto the shore are all music that calms the heart.
Picture taken from here.
The Quran is Music to My Ears
The past year, I’ve reading philosophical books and attending philosophy classes – Western philosophy to be exact on Metaphysics. I just want to expand my horizon of how I view things.
But a friend advised me “You haven’t read all the exegetes by Muslim exegetists, you haven’t mastered Islamic knowledge, but you resort to reading western philosophy.” I don’t really agree on what he said, but I guess, Ramadan is the best time to expand my reading on Islam particularly the Quran.
The Quran is a wonder, each time we read, even though the same verse over and over again, shall breathe in a new breath in us. I adore the Quranic recitation of Sheikh Abd Rahman as-Sudais.
I notice his change of tone when he recites different verses from different chapters, sometimes he cries, sometimes he’s reciting in a high pitch, sometimes he shouts, sometimes relaxed, sometimes like telling a story.
Listening to beautiful Quranic recitations are like music to my ears. According to MD. Ferdouse Khan in his “What is Al-Quran: An Exposition for Non-Muslims”, he connotes that:
“The rhythmic patterns of the Holy Quran constitute another aspect of its methodology of presentation. The clue to the hypnotic power of the Quran is to be sought in its music, which runs through the whole of it. These rhythmic patterns fluctuate with the nature of the subject matter but never ceases.“[1]
This is further explained by Arthur John Arberry in his ‘The Koran Interpreted’:
The verses into which it is divided – and the reckoning by fives and tens goes back to ancient times- are threaded together by loose rhymes into shorter or longer sequences within the Sura; the rhythms of those sequences vary sensibly according to the subject-matter, swinging from the steady march of straightforward narrative or enunciation (tales of the ancient prophets, formulations of rutual and law) to the impetuous haste of ecstatic ejaculation (the majesty of God, the imminence of the Las Day, the torments of Hell and the delights of patterns. [2]
To give an example of the rhythmic patterns, Arberry gave the example of Surah Yusuf having “dramatic hiatuses emphasizing that the story is a familiar one, retold as a reminder of God’s dealings with men and how He delivers out of evil and rewards His faithful messengers, a moral driven home in the epilogue.”
Another example is in Surah Ad-Dhuha “exhibits a simple but perfect rhetorical balance: an opening adjuration (oath) by contrasted light and darkness introduces three triplets matching exactly together.”
For Surah Ar-Rahman, the surah is “a triumphant hymn to the power and glory of God, the terrors of Hell, and the joys of Paradise, is knit together by a running refrain as the tension is built up from a quiet and meditative beginning to an unbearably tremendous close.”
When I was 17 years old, I had the dream of writing my own exegetes. But seems that dream is just left as a dream.
If I were to write an exegete, I would write it from the perspective of rhythm, mainly the poetic interpretation built upon the linguistic features. I believe no one has written that type of exegete.
If I were to pursue that dream, I have to spend years of talaqqi, having to spend a lot of time mastering Arabic.
Sheikh Abd Rahman as-Sudais understands what he recites enabling him to match his voice tone to alter according to the subject matter being recited.
When he cries, I feel like crying even though I do not understand, but he understands well what he recites.
May this Ramadan be different for us. May we become “Ahlul Quran” not simply “Hifzul Quran” or “Qari Al-Quran”.
[1] Ferdouse, K. M. (2005). What is al-Quran: An exposition for non-Muslims. Kuala Lumpur: A.S. Noordeen.
[2] Arberry, A. J. (1998). The Koran: Interpreted. Oxford: Oxford University Presss.
The post The Quran is Music to My Ears appeared first on Langit Ilahi.
