RECITING AND UNDERSTANDING QUR'AN
Poetry was important in Arabia. The poet was the spokesman, social historian, and cultural authority for his tribe and over the years the Arabs had learned how to listen to a recitation and developed a highly sophisticated critical ear. Bards chanted their odes at the annual trade fairs to excited audiences from all over the peninsula. ….
Muhammad’s (PBUH) followers would therefore have been able to pick up verbal signals in the text that are lost in translation. They found that themes, words, phrases and sound patterns recurred again and again – like variations in a piece of music, which subtly amplify the original melody, and add layer upon layer of complexity. The Qur’an was deliberately repetitive; it’s ideas, images and stories were bound together by these internal echoes, which reinforced it’s central teaching with instructive shifts of emphasis. They linked passages that initially seemed separate and integrated the different strands of the text, as one verse delicately qualified and supplemented others. The Qur’an was not imparting factual information that could be conveyed instantaneously. Like Mohammad (PBUH), listeners had to absorb it’s teaching more slowly; their understanding would grow more profound and mature over time, and the rich allusive language and rhythms of the Qur’an helped them to slow their mental process and enter a different mode of consciousness.
Excerpt from ‘Mohammad A Prophet of Our Time’ by Karen Armstrong
RECITING QURAN
Once I asked a certain Sufi shaikh if he had any advice about how to read Quran. His answer has remained imprinted in my mind and heart: "when you read it as if you are reading the word of God, it will open its secrets to you"
Excerpt from "The Knowing Heart" by Kabir Helminski
A Duty of Every MuslimIt is the duty of every Muslim, man, woman, or child, to read the Qur-an and understand it according to his own capacity. If any one of us attains to some knowledge or understanding of it by study, contemplation, and the test of life, both outward and inward, it is his duty, according to his capacity, to instruct others, and share with them the joy and peace which result from contact with the spiritual world.
The Quran-indeed every religious book-has to be read, not only with the tongue and voice and eyes, but with the best light that our intellect can supply, and even more, with the truest and purest light which our heart and conscience can give us. It is in this spirit that I would have my readers approach the Quran.
Excerpt from preface of Holy Quran’s Translation in English by Abdullah Yousuf Ali
The Glorious Qur'an: An Inimitable Symphony
……the Glorious Qur'an, that inimitable symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy.
Excerpt from preface of english translation of Quran by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall Marmaduke Pickthall
Mahir ul Qadri's Poem on Quran
Lament of the Quran
As an ornament do they adorn me,
Yet they keep me and sometimes kiss me.
In their celebrations they recite me,
In disputes they swear by me,
On shelves do they securely keep me
Till another celebration or dispute,
When they need me.
Yes, they read me and memorize me,
Yet only an ornament am I...
My message lies neglected,
My treasure untouched,
The field lies bare, where blossomed once true glory.
Wrong is the treatment I receive
So much to give I, but none is there to perceive.