Question

Assalamu Alaikum, may Allah bless you all. I happened upon your website in search for a term.

My question is: what is "hijaazi"-style of recitation?  Some friends have said it's a very beautiful and unique tone. 

Also, Sheikh Sa'd Ghamdi uses a recitation style that is very soothing and pleasing to the ear. I've heard him do a part of Surah Anbiyaa, the passage of the story of Abraham. Do you have any idea what style he uses?  If you speak Urdu, the word that comes closest is "tarannum" in his style of qiraa'ah. 

Jaza'akum Allah.

Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam and may Allah bless you and all Muslims.

When we start talking about “styles” of Qur’anic recitation and link it to areas such as “hijaazi” the red warning flag comes up.  We always have to make sure we are not “singing” the Qur’an; for the Prophet,  warned against this.  There are styles of music that are named according to the geographical area of the singers, such as hijaaz, so we must stay away from that approach to the Qur’an. 

Taghannam or tarannum are two different Arabic words with the same meaning.   As applied to the Qur’an they are something encouraged, and that is reading it with a nice intonation that is natural to the Arabs, not a false induced one.  We will repeat the hadeeth here that we posted last month:

In a hadeeth related by Al-Imaam Maalik, An-Nisaa’ee, Al-Bayhaqee, and At-Tabaraanee, the Messenger of Allah ,said, “Recite the Qur'an with the tone of the Arabs and their sound, and beware of the tone of those that are wicked and those that do major sins, for verily there will come groups after me that repeat the Qur’an as the repeating of songs, monasticism, and wailing; it does not go beyond their throats, their hearts are spellbound, as well as the hearts of those that like their matter.”   This hadeeth is graded as weak by Sheikh Albani.

Sheikh Mahmoud Al-Husary, in his book on tajweed, Ahkaam Qiraa’ah al-Qur’an al-Kareem, said the meaning of the tone of those that are wicked and major sins is: the recitation that observes in it the sounds or tones of music.  The tone of the Arabs that we should recite the Qur’an with is that which comes naturally  while observing the tajweed rules without fabrication and force. 

In conclusion, we shouldn’t be looking for “styles” of recitation of the Qur’an but proper Arabic intonation without fabricated intonations similar to music.  We can recommend Sheikh Mahmoud Al-Husary, Sheikh Mohammed Sadeeq al-Minshawee, Sheikh Ali Jabar, Sheikh Ali Al-Huthayfee, Sheikh Abdullah Basfar, and Sheikh Abu Bakr Ash-Shatree as excellent and known reciters of the Qur’an.  Do not think that these are the only reciters that are excellent, they are just a few of those we are familiar with.

Wa iyyakum wa-l-muslimeen.