Melodious Voice - The Obligations Muslims Owe to the Qur’an

3. Melodious voice:

It is also required for the proper recitation of the Qur’an that a person should read it in the best manner and in the most melodious  voice  possible.  This  is  necessary  because  almost every human being is gifted with a love for music and has a natural fondness for sweet and melodious sounds. Islam is a natural region; it does not curb any of our inherent tendencies but diverts them into healthy channels. As we have an instinctive love for the beauty of sight and the beauty of sound, we insist upon a fascinating printing of the Holy Qur’an and its recitation in a soft melodious voice. The Prophet (SAW) has urged us to:

Adorn the Qur’an with your voices. (Narrated by Abu Daud & Nasai)

He has also warned us against our negligence in this matter in the words:

One who does not recite the Qur’an in a melodious voice is not from us! (Narrated by Abu Daud)

And has given us the following tidings as a further inducement for melodious recitation:

Allah (SWT) does not listen to anything so attentively as He listens to the Prophet (SAW) reciting the Qur’an aloud in a sweet voice. (Narrated by Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Daud, & Nasai)

It often happened that, while going along his way, the Holy Prophet (SAW) heard a Companion (RAA) recite the Qur’an in a sweet-sounding voice. He would stop and stand for a long time listening to the Qur’an being recited and would appreciate it later on. Sometimes, he would ask a Companion (RAA) to recite the Qur’an to him. It is stated in the books of traditions that once he asked Abdullah Ibn Mas‘ud (RAA) to recite the Qur’an to him. The latter (much astonished at the request) said: “Messenger of Allah! How can I recite the Qur’an to you, while you are the person to whom it was revealed?” He replied: “I like to hear it being recited by others.” Accordingly, Abdullah Ibn Mas‘ud (RAA) began to recite, and, as the Holy Prophet (SAW) sat listening, his eyes welled up with tears which could be seen trickling down his cheeks. On another occasion, he heard a Companion (RAA) recite the Qur’an in a melodious voice which he praised in the words: “You have been granted a share from the musical talent of the sons of Daud (AS).”

Although a person should recite the Qur’an in the most melodious voice he can produce because otherwise the recitation will be far from satisfactory, yet to over-emphasize this aspect of recitation is not without danger. When a melodious recitation is the outcome of mere show or affectation or when one takes to it as a profession, it becomes a serious perversion and a reprehensible practice. We should, therefore, carefully guard against this danger; still we may seek the satisfaction of our love for the beauty of sound in reciting the Qur’an or in hearing it being  recited  in  a  melodious  voice.  Hence,  everyone  of  us should read the Book of Allah (SWT) in as nice a manner and as sweet a voice as it may be possible for him to do.

Source:The Obligations Muslims owe to The Quran (Book by Dr. Israr Ahmad)

Daily Recitation - The Obligations Muslims Owe to the Qur’an

2. Daily Recitation:

If  we  wish  to  fulfill  our  obligation  of  reciting  the Qur’an, the second thing we are required to do is to include the recitation of the Qur’an in the daily routine of our life, and each one of us should recite a certain portion of the Holy Book regularly every day. The portion fixed for daily recitation can be different for different people. The maximum portion which has the  support  of  the  Holy  Prophet  (SAW)  is  one-third  of  the Qur’an. It means that ten parts should be recited each day so that the recitation of the whole Qur’an may be completed in three days. A minimum portion — and mind you, any thing less than this bare minimum could not even be imagined till recent years — could be one para daily, so that the whole Qur’an could be read in a month. In fact, this is the least amount of recitation which should be done every day and an amount less than this would not be worth the name. 

The middle position between the maximum  and  minimum  is  that  one  should  read  the  whole Qur’an in a week. This, indeed, was the practice followed by the majority of the Companions (RAA) and the same according to a tradition was suggested to Abdullah Ibn Umar (RAA) by the Holy Prophet (SAW). It is for this reason that the Qur’an was divided into seven ahzaab (sections) in the time of the Companions (RAA).3 The first six of the ahzaab consist of three (excluding Surah Al-Fatiha), five, seven, nine, eleven, and thirteen Surahs respectively, and the seventh called Hizb-ul- mufassal consists of the rest of the Holy Book. Every hizb comprises of approximately four paras (parts), which can be recited quite satisfactorily in two hours.

Persons of a devout nature and staunch faith should do this amount of recitation daily. Both the common people and intellectuals must depend upon the regular recitation of the Holy 

Book for the nourishment of their souls. 

To the average kind of men it will serve as an admonition or remembrance of God, and to the men of learning and intelligence, as a source of knowledge and food for thought. Even those who ponder over the meaning of the Qur’an day and night, who think deeply over its individual Surahs for years on end, and who pause for long over the subtle points  in  its  text,  cannot  do  without  this  regular  recitation. Indeed, they require its aid all the more in the noble task they have set before themselves. Actually, constant recitation of the Holy Book will  help  solve many of their problems and will continuously open up new vistas of thought before their minds.

Note-3:  It may be noted that the present division of the whole text into thirty parts and of each part into smaller sub-parts called ruku‘, was made much later.

Note-4: It is a common experience of the devoted scholars of the Qur’an that when they are perplexed by an intellectual problem weighing upon their minds, they found that, during course of their recitation of the Qur’an, a clue to the solution of the problem suddenly struck their minds. They got the enlightenment from a passage of the Qur’an which they had read hundred times before, but as their mind was not preoccupied by the problem, the passage did not yield the interpretation relevant to its solution.

Source:The Obligations Muslims owe to The Quran (Book by Dr. Israr Ahmad)