Tilāwah: Sūrah Ibrāhīm 23 – 27

Riwāyah: Khalaf ʿan Ḥamzah

Archive: Karachi, 1439

The Recitation

The tree in the Qurʾān is shown to have deep rooted meanings, ranging from the shajarah taiyyibah (the Goodly Tree) to the shajarah khabīthah or the shajarah malʿūnah (the Wicked or Accursed Tree).

Today’s recitation was a fitting illustration of the vocal tree, roots of the voice firmly fixed to the ground and intonations of the maqāms flying high, breaching the limits of the sky. With the recitation following the captivating path of the riwāyah of Khalaf, the maqāms bayātī and rast in their qarār reigned supreme. The multiple wujūhāt of Khalaf were presented in beautiful style.

Khalaf Distinctions

The following section deals with the Khalaf distinctions of today’s recitation.

When Ḥamzah stops on a madd muttaṣil, he offers five ways to recite the concerned word:

• Short madd (2 ḥarakah)
• Medium madd (4 or 5 ḥarakah)
• Full madd (6 ḥarakah)

These three conditions entail the sukūn on hamzah (as you can hear in the clip)

• Tas-hīl on hamzah with a short madd with rawm
• Tas-hīl on hamzah with a full madd with rawm

Tas-hīl is when the hamzah is pronounced without its sharpness, and as a result, becomes blunt and facile, sounding like a mixture of the sharp hamzah and the hāʾ.

Rawm, a sukūn method, occurs exclusively on a ḍammah (pesh) or a kasrah (zayr). It is done by pronouncing 1/3 (one-third) of a ḥarakah when stopping on a word ending with a ḍammah or a kasrah. Listen to the clip carefully to identify rawm pronounced in conjunction with the tas-hīl.

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The Transitions of Mustafa Ismail – Chapter 1

Today’s article discusses how Sheikh Mustafa Ismail transitions into the maqām nahāwand from other maqāms. It is advisable, at this point, to return to the previous article and go through the concepts listed there to freshen up your memory.

Transitioning from one maqām into another is something that experts in this field are accustomed to. One must know that there are no set rules for making such transitions. For instance, if you are in the maqām rast, you are free to transition into any other maqām.

However, it is customary for experts to create and adopt a certain style for making such transitions. One such expert is Sheikh Mustafa Ismail who follows a certain style and/or method that he has created for himself to transition into and from the various maqāms. This method of transitioning applies to his beginnings, endings and intermediate recitations.

The Sheikh begins his recitations with the maqāms of the first group (bayāt, ṣabā, ḥijāz). After he completes employing whichever maqāms he wishes to from the first group, he proceeds to transition into the second group (rast, nahāwand, jihārkāh, sīkā).

Thus, the Sheikh begins with bayāt, then transitions into ṣabā and then uses ḥijāz if he wishes to. When he transitions into the second group, he either uses nahāwand or sīkā to do so.

The Sheikh rarely transitions from bayāt (group 1) into nahāwand (group 2). Listen to the following clip containing one such rare transition:

The Sheikh normally transitions from bayāti to ṣabā and from ṣabā to nahāwand. Listen to the following example:

At times, the Sheikh uses all the three maqāms of the first group in their listed succession.

In this case, the Sheikh uses two methods for transitioning into the second group:

First: Transition from Ḥijāz into Sīkā

Second: Transition from Ḥijāz into Nahāwand

In conclusion, the Sheikh commences with bayāt. He rarely transitions into nahāwand directly. More commonly, he transitions briefly into ṣabā and progresses to nahāwand or proceeds to ḥijāz after ṣabā and then transitions into either nahāwand or sīkā.