Sacred Sound: Experiencing Music in World Religions

3: ISLAM AND MUSIC

89 M uslims, like Jews and Christians, are a “people of the book” (ahl-alkit Åb). Their scripture, the Qur’Ån (Koran), contains the word of God. His divine message was revealed to the Prophet Muæammad, who is also called the Messenger of God. The Muslim creed encapsulates this powerfully simple foundation of Islam: LÅ ilÅha illa’AllÅh, Muæammad al Rasu¥l AllÅh (“There is no God but AllÅh, and Muh‹ammad is His Messenger ”). This utterly monotheistic creed is the last of the three “revealed” religions originating in the Middle East, and completes the three “Abrahamic” faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Islam is also universally accessible to anyone ready to submit to its teachings. Islam means “submission,” and a Muslim is one who submits to its creed and follows its five “pillars”: (1) shahÅda, or creed, (2) s›alÅt, the ritual prayer practised five times a day (3) zakÅt, or a tithe for charity (4) fasting during the month of RamadÅn; and (5) hajj, or pilgrimage to the Ka’ba, Abraham’s sanctuary in Mecca. The Prophet Muh‹ammad is also called the last prophet, for the Qur’Ån recognizes the Jewish prophets as well as Jesus. Muæammad, however, is but a man; the gulf between God and human beings is absolute. The Qur’Ån was revealed to Muæammad, starting when he was forty years old (610 ce), through the archangel JibrÅ’ı¥l (Gabriel). JibrÅ’ı¥l voiced the message to make it audible to a human ear, for God cannot be seen or heard. Alone, Prophet Muæammad heard a voice command: “Recite.” The message from God was made accessible to human perception and comprehension not through cognition, inspiration, or a vision, but through sound: the sound of the spoken word in Muæammad’s language, Arabic. 3 ISLAM AND MUSIC RegulaQureshi The Prophet Muæammad received the words of the Qur’Ån in retainable portions over a considerable span of time. He kept them in his memory and transmitted their message to his followers through oral recitation. By the time he died (632ce), many others had memorized the entire message . It was not until later that the present text of the Qur’Ån was committed to writing during the reign of the Calı¥ph UthmÅn (644–56), third of the four companions of the Prophet who were chosen to succeed him as leader of the community. However, the written words of the Qur’Ån remain inseparably linked to their utterance in recitation. Muæammad had spread the message by sending out reciters, not texts, and Calı¥ph UthmÅn sent with each copy of the standard text a reciter who could teach its recitation.1 Even today, the pages of the Qur’Ån are as much an aid for the memory as a direct access to the message of Islam. Learning how to read the Qur’Ån means learning the sound as well as the meaning of the words, so that they can be remembered and recited. That the written words continue to live both phonetically and in writing can be seen clearly from the standard practice of teaching Muslim children to read and recite the Qur’Ån in its original Arabic form. The ultimate achievement is to retain the entire message by memory with the aid of its sounded form; such reciters are honoured with the title of ºÅfiz al-Qur’Ån. 90
Islam and Music Islamic mosque in Calcutta. Courtesy of Guy L. Beck. As a text, the Qur’Ån is a testimony to the power and glory of God, a clear statement of His will, and a guide to believers that also includes instructive narratives of past prophets shared by the Judeo-Christian tradition . It is also a text of unequalled poetic beauty, which is itself considered a proof of its divine origin. For 1,400 years the language of the Qur’Ån has served as the exalted standard for classical literary Arabic. As a poetic text, the Qur’Ån abounds in a wealth of rhyme, assonance, rhythmic patterns , and recurring phrases, all of which enhance the meaning, and provide structure to the text as well as sonic impact. It has been observed that the way the text is structured is highly commensurate with recitation. References to recitation are found in the Qur’Ån itself, stating that the Qur’Ån was...