Aa maqala no tarjumo Lisanuddawat ma mawjood chhe.

The New Year’s Eve of 1444 Hijri commenced with a melodious adhān at the masjid of Northolt, London delivered by Shehzada Husain Bhaisaheb Burhanuddin Saheb DM in the maqām of Rāst. The name of this maqām, Rāst, means “the right way” in the Farsi language. The befitting conclusion is that breaking our year with the remembrance of al-Imam al-Husain AS is indeed the “right way”.

This year, Tajweed Explained aims to discuss the history of Qur’anic recitation in Fatimi and contemporary Egypt along with the explanation of the daily pre-Waaz Mubarak recitation. The contemporary discussion on Qur’anic recitation in Egypt will revolve around the modern Qurrāʾ and their backgrounds as well as their relevance to our style of Qur’anic recitation which has witnessed dramatic popularity in recent years.

Mahad al-Zahra, Aljamea tus Saifiyah has launched the fourth edition of the Tajweed Musabaqat slated to be held during Istifada Ilmiyah, 1444 AH in Surat this year. Interested candidates may head over to https://tajweed.mahadalquran.com/ for more details.

Patronage of Qur’anic Sciences in Fatimi Cairo

Egypt has been the cradle of Qur’anic recitation and sciences since the time of A’immat Fatimiyeen AS who provided all means necessary for the development of Qur’anic education in the Fatimi realm. The Mamluk historian Ibn Taghribirdi writes that in the year 400 AH, al-Imam al-Hakim AS allocated funds for salaries to be disbursed to resident Qur’anic reciters and scholars at the various masjids. Likewise, the historian Al-Maqrizi who has written extensively on the Fatimi caliphate, says that in the year 403 AH, seven chests containing a total of one thousand two hundred and ninety copies of the Qur’an were transported from the royal palace to the Jamiʿ al-ʿAtīq for public use. Another historian, Ibn Abd al-Zahir, writes that in the year 406 AH, al-Imam al-Hakim AS approved a total of seventy-one thousand seven hundred and thirty-three Fatimi dinars per annum from the state budget to be distributed among the scholars, reciters and mu’adhdhins in Cairo. The narration of Warsh from the reading of Nāfiʿ saw increased development in Cairo during the Fatimi caliphate.

Status of Qur’anic Reciters in Fatimi Cairo

Ibn al-Tuwayr, a historian from the late Fatimi period, writes that the Hazrat Nabawiyah of A’immat Fatimiyeen AS was always adorned with the presence of Qur’anic reciters who were referred to as the “Reciters of the Hazrat Sharifah” (قراء الحضرة الشريفة). These elite reciters, numbering ten or more, accompanied the Imam AS in public and private audiences. The role of these reciters was to melodiously recite verses from the Qur’an appropriate to a given situation. Historians narrate an anecdote that when Maulana Badr al-Jamali RA who had been summoned by al-Imam al-Mustansir AS to quell civil unrest in Cairo entered the city to assume his appointment as the vizier, one of the elite reciters recited the following verse:

ولقد نصركم الله ببدر

(And Allah aided you through Badr)

Today

In recent times, several popular and famous Qur’anic reciters have emerged from Egypt such as Shaikh Mahmoud Khalil al-Husary, Shaikh Mohammed Siddiq al-Minshawi, Shaikh Mustafa Ismail, Shaikh Abdul Basit and others.

This year during Ashara Mubaraka we will witness melodious recitations of various Qur’anic verses by Shehzada Husain Bhaisaheb Burhanuddin Saheb DM before the commencement of Waaz Mubarak. Tajweed Explained will bring to you the details of recitations, some very interesting snippets from history and a very new blog section which will be revealed in the first article of the series. Stay tuned, follow @tajweedexplained on instagram and reach the waaz venue allotted to you before time!