The month of Ramadan falls in the middle of a sea of religious radio and television materials prepared specifically for it, and while the masses of Muslims in it read or hear the Qur'an more than any other month throughout the year, there is still a constellation of reciters that occupy the hearts of listeners, because of their voices of good performance, correctness of recitation and a unique sense that gave it a sincere faith dimension.

Quranic Maqamat

The science of maqamat is known as improving and improving the voice, and it was reported from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) that he heard Abu Musa al-Ash'ari read the Qur'an, so he listened to his reading, and then said to him, "If you had seen me listening to your reading yesterday. I have received a psalm from the Psalms of the family of David." Abu Musa al-Ash'ari said, "Are you listening to me, O Messenger of Allah?" Abu Musa al-Ash'ari said, "If I knew that you were listening to me, I would have loved him."

The number of musical maqams is 8: Al-Bayat, Al-Nahawand, Al-Sika, Al-Rast, Al-Kurd, Al-Ajam, Al-Iraq, and Al-Saba, and several sub-maqams branch out from them. Six of them are used in the Qur'an: Nahawand, Rast, Sika, Saba, Bayyat, and Hijaz. A large number of recitation kings in Egypt tweeted, each on the maqam he wished, and the knowledge of the maqamat gave their performances and voices a deep spiritual dimension.

Sky Guitar

The voice of a reciter was not associated with Ramadan, its breaths and breezes, as was the voice of Sheikh Muhammad Rifaat (1882-1950), whom his fans call "the harp of heaven." He was the one who inaugurated the broadcast of the Egyptian radio with his melodious voice in 1934 when he recited the words of God Almighty: "We have opened a clear opening for you." It was the first time the Holy Quran was heard over the radio.

The voice of Sheikh Muhammad Rifaat was associated with the Qur'an before the call to prayer in the Ramadan, as channels in Egypt - and in several Arab countries - always broadcast Qur'anic clips of him before the call to prayer. Sheikh Mohammed Rifaat was known for his love of recitation on the shrine of the Hijaz, and is characterized by his sad nature, as if the reader tells a story with a vocal layer full of pain, pain and interrogation.

Crying Reader

Among the sheikhs whose voice is associated with the holy month of Ramadan is also Sheikh Muhammad Siddiq al-Minshawi (1920-1969), who rose to prominence in the recitation of Hafs from Asim. He was characterized by great reverence and crying a lot during his recitation, until he was known to be the weeping reciter because of his tendency to recite on the maqam of Nahawand.

The head of the Holy Quran Radio, Dr. Reda Abdel Salam, says about Al-Minshawi: This voice was chosen by God to be a path of guidance and met and a path of serenity and a habitat for purity and an oasis where souls rest and souls are happy.

Nahawand is a maqam with a melodious narrative character, named after the Persian city of Nahawand, and it is one of the ancient sober oriental shrines. Al-Minshawi navigates the verses of the Holy Qur'an and its meanings with his deep melodious voice on this shrine, among the Qur'an and the recitation, taking his lovers and listeners to pure spiritual worlds in this holy month.

Voice of Mecca

In a situation that is not surprising, the Syrian newspaper "Sawt al-Arab" reports that when Sheikh Abdul Basit Abdul Samad (1927-1988) arrived at Aleppo airport on May 31, 1956, the airport and bus stops around it were crowded because of the crowding of lovers who came from all over Syria to receive the owner of the golden throat. In the midst of the hospitality, Sheikh Abdul Samad walked out of the airport in a convoy of dozens of cars. The Umayyad Mosque was packed with thousands of worshippers fond of his voice, in a scene unprecedented in modern history.

Sheikh Abd al-Samad began his career as a Quran reciter in Cairo at the age of 23, when he was invited to attend a celebration of Sayyida Zainab's birth. He went with a relative who knew some of those present, such as Sheikh Mustafa Ismail and Abu al-Enein Sha'isha. The mosque was then full, and the audience listened to the voice of the young Sheikh after the senior reciters present authorized him to recite for 10 minutes, but the recitation that night lasted two hours, as the audience present asked the Sheikh to continue whenever they said "the truth of God Almighty."

He is one of the few reciters who mastered recitation on all maqams, but he was charming in the bayat, which is the most common and used maqam in the Kurdish melody after the maqam of Rast, which is a rich maqam that combines sadness and joy according to the performance of the reader, and it is also an authentic oriental maqam, based on the tone of irrigation, and cannot be played with Western instruments, such as piano, violin, and so on.

Talking about the kings of recitation with golden throats may need books, this is what the journalist Ayman al-Hakim, who mentions in his book "The Psalms of the Qur'an: The Seven Greats of the State of Recitation", admits that it is easy to produce a thousand professors, but it is difficult to create one artist, because the artist is made by God and not by schools and universities.

Sheikh Muhammad Omran (1944-1994) excelled in recitation and chanting on the Saba maqam, one of the most unique and unusual maqams. Unlike the rest of the maqams, the boyhood does not end with the same note from which it began, which makes it an incomplete maqam. Despite this, it has spread among readers and singers, as it is not rivaled by another place in sadness and grief.

As for the maqam of Rast, it is an authentic oriental maqam, and the word "Rust" means "straight" in the Persian language, so many muezzins and readers preferred to use Rust in establishing the call to prayer, because of its luxury, seriousness and integrity. Sheikh Ahmad Naina used it in one of his famous historical recitations in Iran, because it is considered the home and origin of the rest.

Finally, sika is the maqam of lovers, a compound of two words: the first is "sih" meaning (3), and the second is "kah" meaning (maqam). The preamble of this maqam expands to accommodate the pitch of the performer's voice, no matter how wide it is, so it is frequently used in tarab songs and deep recitations. It was recited by Sheikh Mustafa Ismail because of its capacity to carefully express the meanings to be performed.