Listen
You must read out loud
To understand its meaning
Allah must be heard
“The written text is an aid to the oral tradition, and that to achieve full mastery, one must ultimately depend on what one hears.” There is a popular saying that seeing is believing; however, in the Islamic faith, this phrase is changed. In Islam, hearing is believing. For my project, I wrote a haiku poem about the importance of speaking the word orally. In the poem I state “You must read out loud/ to understand its meaning/ Allah must be heard.” It is important to note that I decided to write this poem as a haiku because I really wanted to emphasize the fact that it was not necessarily the amount of words that would determine whether or not the poem had an impact on the reader. It is not until the reader listens to the words that he can truly appreciate its essence. This ideology dates back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad. The revelations were revealed to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel orally. Nothing was written; instead, Muhammad listened to the words that were given to him. He taught his followers through his voice not with a book. It was not until his words were written down to form the Qur’an that words even became apparent. Even with this in mind, many train their entire lives in order to be able to memorize the Qur’an. Why? It is not because they are interested in the words; instead, they wish to capture that essential sound that forms the basis of the Islamic faith.