Week 3: God’s Word as Sacred Sound and the Concept of Prophethood
Different ways to breathe
This week, we were talking about the significance of the Quran as not just a written religious scripture but also as an oral tradition. We learned about different styles of recitation and the repetition of sounds in the poetic verses. We discussed how the Quran was never compiled in written form during the Prophet’s time, and how that impacted the styles of recitation and how they were regulated in Islamic society. I specifically wanted to focus on the Ghazali reading with my piece. He clearly and coherently described 10 rules of Quranic recitation and used Hadith and the examples of prominent companions or scholars to justify his “one-sided” and fundamentalist views.
In my piece, I express the importance of tartil, which is the style of reading the Quran slowly and clearly. This is why I include verses that have the vowel markings on them and space them out roughly equally from each other. I also acknowledge through this work that we cannot tell if the recitor has adhered to any other of Ghazali’s rules, whether is be making abulution before recitation, or weeping “for his lack of grief and tears”, referring to the fact that he should be so moved and consumed with humility in front of God that he expresses this form of emotion. I try to question how realistically, the Muslim community, will actually subscribe to all these rules and not have be able to express or read the Quran in styles influenced by their emotions and culture. This is what I try to represent with the slight change in color with the individual verses and colorful lights coming from the person’s mouth. Sometimes the Quran is read for a variety of reasons, whether it is to appreciate the beauty of the letter sounds or to reflect on its meaning.