Tajweed, Shuraim and Jazz

Over the past few months I've been trying to learn Tajweed (recitation of Quran in a particular style). But during the month of Ramadan I've had a radical change of opinion about my Tajweed. I came to realize that the Quran is much more 'holier' than the impression I had of its holiness. This realization dawned upon me after I spent quite some time reading the tafseer of the surahs. I recall how before Ramadan I used to sit with the Sheikh in our local Masjid everyday after Fajr Salah trying to implement the rules of tajweed and reneder my "melodious" voice to the few verses the Sheikh asked me to recite. In reality, I was doing nothing but "destroying" the beauty and "killing" the very essence of deep meaning those verses imbibed in them. Being a non-arabic speaking desi guy, I never had a chance to know the meaning, let alone ponder over the Quranic verses. So I just used to apply the tajweed rules blindly, as if dealing with a math problem step-by-step to arrive at the solution in the form of beautiful Qira'at. First of all, with my half-asleep senses so early in the morning and a sick voice, I could guarantee myself that this was never going to happen no matter what I do. But I just thought to myself, what the heck, I am gonna recite the Quran anyways and one day (may be 5-10 years down the line), inshAllah I will evolve my voice into one like Sa'ud ash-Shuraim!

I chose Shuraim for two reasons: (1) my voice resembles his especially during fajr time when I would be half asleep (and I love it that way, it sounds so 'masculine' !) And (2) Shuraim has this exclusive, enchanting style that I don't notice in any of the other reciters that I know of. He is like this new kid on the traditional jazz music scene with a completely new and refreshing voice and style so different from the classical gurus of recitation like Hudheifi or Basfar or Hoseiri. I have to admit here I've been a jazz fan (at least after coming to US), I cannot deny it, not before Allah SWT, who is described as "'aleem-um bi-dhaatis-sudoor" in the Quran. But I also have to admit that ever since I started listening to Shuraim, I just can not listen to anything else. His voice is so smooth, with that touch-of-velvet like feeling and his pace, SubhanAllah, once started, is smoother than the smoothest jazz music (Listen to his Surat Al-Jinn here). In particular, I love his rhythm, his occasional breaks of emotion, his constant pitch of sound which amplifies itself at suitable words (like the way he stops at the Lafz-jalaalah, ALLAH). I simply don not notice these features in the recitation of a classical masters like Hudheifi. I have listened to Shuraim's recitation so many times from the recordings which I downloaded on my computer. I am so familiar with his recitation that I know precisely at what verse he is going to stop to cry, to express anger, express love or inject whatever suitable emotion fits for that particular verse (Listen to his Surat Al-Mutaffifeen here or Surat Al-Mulk - my favorite!).

So anyway, I would just sit there with the Sheikh trying to recite a page or two from the Quran every morning. I had no clue what those verses meant. But after I started reading the tafseer of those verses before attempting to practice Tajweed, 'WALLAHI', I could feel like needed 50% less effort at applying the Tajweed rules. But the downside of this is that it takes forever to read a the translation and tafseer of a page of verses from Quran. For instance, the other day, I was reciting Surat Yunus after fajr Salat and the Sheikh, for the first time "in my lfe" was impressed by me! He has his peculiar wry grin on his face at such occasions, when he is being appreciative while trying not to mention the mistakes I make. I usually make blunders in Tajweed, with at least 3-4 mistakes per line ranging from messing up simple fatha with kathra to stopping or pausing at all the wrong locations, then going back a few words to maintain continuity and again messing up kathra with fatha on my way back and so on and so forth. But Alhamdulillah on that day, I seem to have maintained good continuity with very few Fatha/Kathra exhanges. So the Sheikh couldn't resist asking me which reciter I had been listening to and how many times I had listened to him. I couldn't resist smiling back while telling him that I spent almost 4 hours to read the tafseer and then preactice recitation for only a couple of pages of that Surah. But it was not not Shuraim this time. He was way too fast in that particular recording I had for that Surah. Somehow I happend to stumble upon Abdullah Basfar's beautiful recitation online and SubhAllah, his Surah Yunus (CLICK here to listen , you have to scroll down to find the player) impressed me so much that i had to reckon that the new-kid-on-the-block (Shuraim) can't beat a classical maestro like Basfar! I really loved his classic style and downloaded his recitation and played verse by verse many times over while pausing each time to imitate him. No wonder my friend in the other room of the apartment we both share was looking surprised at me in the morning and asking if it was me who was awake until 2 AM the previous night and making strange noises!

Well, after this and other similar experiences, I now feel that I should dare NOT to venture to recite any verse from the Quran just for the heck of it. I now feel ashamed, or rather cowed down by the majesty of the Quran. I simply had no real real sense of it before Ramadan. I feel ashamed of myself for all the destruction I was causing until now, by having the false confidence that if I know Tajweed rules, I can be like Shuraim. (O yea, He is still my favorite new kid on the block).