Recitation without comprehension?
“Al-Quran, the Word of God, is inimitable and unsurpassable not only in the grandeur of its diction, the variety of its imagery and the splendour of its word painting, but also in its meaning, substance, message and profundity” — Athar Husain, The Message of the Quran.
There are three distinct levels, in the order of increasing spiritual rewards and practical benefits, at which one can submit oneself in the appreciation of the Quran. The first and the lowest is mere recitation. The second and the intermediate level is the thorough understanding of the Quran, which can be furnished by reading the explanation and context of each verse (tafseer). The highest and supreme level is to mould one’s life according to the dictates of the Quran and pursue every action under the guidance and direction of its teachings.
There lies much less ambiguity in various approaches established to aid the truthful attainment of Quranic insight and its proper manifestation in one’s actions as endorsed by one of the prayers offered by Hazrat Umar, who said, “God! Whatever my tongue recites from Thy Book, grant me the favour to reflect upon it. God, bestow upon me the understanding of it. Vouchsafe to me the knowledge of its meaning, and the vision to see its niceties. Grant me the favour to act according to its injunctions as long as I live. Your Being is without doubt Omnipotent.”
It is also intuitively self-evident, why more emphasis is laid on understanding and action compared to mere recitation. The wisdom and rationale behind this assignment of importance can be elucidated further with the aid of two arguments. First, recitation without understanding the meaning would not do justice to the real purpose of its revelation. Second, the salvation as well as worldly welfare of the entire humanity depends on following the guidance ordained in this Divine Book.
Let us now also contemplate here how these two levels are actually achieved. However, before going into its details, it is pertinent to understand the significance of a person’s native language. The importance of language cannot be overstated. Language plays a vital role in providing a medium to our cognitive processes, which we employ to understand, express, illustrate and preserve concepts, emotions, objects, ideas, perceptions, sensations and thoughts. Therefore, it is our language which constructs a bridge between the detailed explanation of Quranic verses (tafseer) and our mental comprehension. This phenomenon seamlessly translates into one’s actions, as the thoughts originating the intent for any particular action, borrow judiciously from the religiously understood concepts.
Now, let us closely examine the first level, which involves the Quran’s plain recitation. There is definitely a benefit in the Arabic recitation of the Quran. Many scholars contend that it has played a very critical role, especially in the early days of Islam, to completely preserve each and every word of the Quran by paying particular attention to its pronunciation and memorisation. It is also easy to perceive that an Arabic speaker will personally gain more benefit by performing such a deed compared to a person lacking command on Arabic. An Arabic native may not gain a complete grasp of every commandment ordained by God, but he would still be able to appreciate the basic semantics of several Divine instructions.
Allah is omniscient and He chose to send the Torah (Old Testament) in Hebrew in the native language of Moses and his nation. Similarly, Jesus was a native speaker of Aramaic and that is how he preached God’s message to his people. However, after the death of Jesus, when the Bible was actually transcribed, Greek was the language of scholarship and therefore the New Testament was first composed in Greek in 50-100 A.D. Even many Jews themselves, before the advent of Christianity, found it hard to understand Hebrew and the Old Testament got translated into Greek around 200 B.C. Therefore it should not surprise anyone to observe that the prophecies were sent in Arabic to our beloved Holy Prophet (PBUH), as it was the common language of Arabia at that time, so that the message of God could become easily accessible to every tribe residing in that region.
Given this background, now compare the additional effort non-native Arabic speakers have to make. They can earn as much heavenly reward as a native speaker earns by reciting the Quran. However, a person who has minimal skills in comprehending Arabic would completely miss the underlying message. That person, while reciting the Quran, would be going through a ritualistic exercise and not only would take much longer on average to recite a passage of similar length, due to a natural apprehension in making a mistake with the unfamiliar syntax of a foreign language, but also would not gain any knowledge necessary to abide by commands decreed by God in His Holy Book.
It is true that these people can read the translation as well, but many scholars consider recitation in Arabic much superior to reading the Quran in any other language. This leads the non-Arabic speakers to a dilemma — either they read the translation of the Quran in their own language, or earn more reward for the hereafter by spending as much time in Arabic recitation. Such a conundrum, for those lacking Arabic linguistic skills, has a natural consequence of increased tendency, among less than highly devout Muslims, to forego the translation reading in favour of its Arabic recitation.
However, we all know that God is just and He has said Himself, “He is always standing firm on justice. There is no God but Him, the Mighty, the Wise” (3:18).
“And your Lord does not deal unjustly with anyone” (18:49).
These verses clearly demonstrate that the disparity in effort between native and non-native speakers, as we have perceived above, cannot be ordained by God, because He is impartial to any racial, linguistic, national or cultural origin.
As hinted earlier, Arabic recitation does play a key role in preserving the accurate pronunciation and words of the Quran. This idea has been promoted by scholars who have greatly elaborated on the advantages of memorising the Quran (hifz) in Arabic with recitation skills, which truthfully reflect the content in its entirety.
Notwithstanding the importance of memorisation for the sake of preservation through successive generations, it would be a gross exaggeration to attribute the real rationale behind the encouragement of recitation to the sole accomplishment of this noble cause. As observed above, plain recitation in Arabic for a native Arabic speaker inevitably opens up new vistas for the basic understanding of Islam and would create a propensity for deeper understanding among its reciters, influencing them to read contextually elaborate explanations for quenching their intellectual thirst. Similarly, non-native speakers, reading the Quran translated by a competent authority in their own language would be on an equal footing to enjoy the same niche, which comes naturally to Arabic speakers. Therefore, it is essential to reduce the perceived inequality in the reward for Arabic recitation compared to its recital in syntactically and semantically accurate translation. Once this notion gets assimilated and accepted by Muslims, the impact will be clearly perceptible, with the clear manifestation of better religious knowledge among a higher majority of Muslims, who presently just content themselves with the ritualistic recitation of the Quran in Arabic.
There are three distinct levels, in the order of increasing spiritual rewards and practical benefits, at which one can submit oneself in the appreciation of the Quran. The first and the lowest is mere recitation. The second and the intermediate level is the thorough understanding of the Quran, which can be furnished by reading the explanation and context of each verse (tafseer). The highest and supreme level is to mould one’s life according to the dictates of the Quran and pursue every action under the guidance and direction of its teachings.
There lies much less ambiguity in various approaches established to aid the truthful attainment of Quranic insight and its proper manifestation in one’s actions as endorsed by one of the prayers offered by Hazrat Umar, who said, “God! Whatever my tongue recites from Thy Book, grant me the favour to reflect upon it. God, bestow upon me the understanding of it. Vouchsafe to me the knowledge of its meaning, and the vision to see its niceties. Grant me the favour to act according to its injunctions as long as I live. Your Being is without doubt Omnipotent.”
It is also intuitively self-evident, why more emphasis is laid on understanding and action compared to mere recitation. The wisdom and rationale behind this assignment of importance can be elucidated further with the aid of two arguments. First, recitation without understanding the meaning would not do justice to the real purpose of its revelation. Second, the salvation as well as worldly welfare of the entire humanity depends on following the guidance ordained in this Divine Book.
Let us now also contemplate here how these two levels are actually achieved. However, before going into its details, it is pertinent to understand the significance of a person’s native language. The importance of language cannot be overstated. Language plays a vital role in providing a medium to our cognitive processes, which we employ to understand, express, illustrate and preserve concepts, emotions, objects, ideas, perceptions, sensations and thoughts. Therefore, it is our language which constructs a bridge between the detailed explanation of Quranic verses (tafseer) and our mental comprehension. This phenomenon seamlessly translates into one’s actions, as the thoughts originating the intent for any particular action, borrow judiciously from the religiously understood concepts.
Now, let us closely examine the first level, which involves the Quran’s plain recitation. There is definitely a benefit in the Arabic recitation of the Quran. Many scholars contend that it has played a very critical role, especially in the early days of Islam, to completely preserve each and every word of the Quran by paying particular attention to its pronunciation and memorisation. It is also easy to perceive that an Arabic speaker will personally gain more benefit by performing such a deed compared to a person lacking command on Arabic. An Arabic native may not gain a complete grasp of every commandment ordained by God, but he would still be able to appreciate the basic semantics of several Divine instructions.
Allah is omniscient and He chose to send the Torah (Old Testament) in Hebrew in the native language of Moses and his nation. Similarly, Jesus was a native speaker of Aramaic and that is how he preached God’s message to his people. However, after the death of Jesus, when the Bible was actually transcribed, Greek was the language of scholarship and therefore the New Testament was first composed in Greek in 50-100 A.D. Even many Jews themselves, before the advent of Christianity, found it hard to understand Hebrew and the Old Testament got translated into Greek around 200 B.C. Therefore it should not surprise anyone to observe that the prophecies were sent in Arabic to our beloved Holy Prophet (PBUH), as it was the common language of Arabia at that time, so that the message of God could become easily accessible to every tribe residing in that region.
Given this background, now compare the additional effort non-native Arabic speakers have to make. They can earn as much heavenly reward as a native speaker earns by reciting the Quran. However, a person who has minimal skills in comprehending Arabic would completely miss the underlying message. That person, while reciting the Quran, would be going through a ritualistic exercise and not only would take much longer on average to recite a passage of similar length, due to a natural apprehension in making a mistake with the unfamiliar syntax of a foreign language, but also would not gain any knowledge necessary to abide by commands decreed by God in His Holy Book.
It is true that these people can read the translation as well, but many scholars consider recitation in Arabic much superior to reading the Quran in any other language. This leads the non-Arabic speakers to a dilemma — either they read the translation of the Quran in their own language, or earn more reward for the hereafter by spending as much time in Arabic recitation. Such a conundrum, for those lacking Arabic linguistic skills, has a natural consequence of increased tendency, among less than highly devout Muslims, to forego the translation reading in favour of its Arabic recitation.
However, we all know that God is just and He has said Himself, “He is always standing firm on justice. There is no God but Him, the Mighty, the Wise” (3:18).
“And your Lord does not deal unjustly with anyone” (18:49).
These verses clearly demonstrate that the disparity in effort between native and non-native speakers, as we have perceived above, cannot be ordained by God, because He is impartial to any racial, linguistic, national or cultural origin.
As hinted earlier, Arabic recitation does play a key role in preserving the accurate pronunciation and words of the Quran. This idea has been promoted by scholars who have greatly elaborated on the advantages of memorising the Quran (hifz) in Arabic with recitation skills, which truthfully reflect the content in its entirety.
Notwithstanding the importance of memorisation for the sake of preservation through successive generations, it would be a gross exaggeration to attribute the real rationale behind the encouragement of recitation to the sole accomplishment of this noble cause. As observed above, plain recitation in Arabic for a native Arabic speaker inevitably opens up new vistas for the basic understanding of Islam and would create a propensity for deeper understanding among its reciters, influencing them to read contextually elaborate explanations for quenching their intellectual thirst. Similarly, non-native speakers, reading the Quran translated by a competent authority in their own language would be on an equal footing to enjoy the same niche, which comes naturally to Arabic speakers. Therefore, it is essential to reduce the perceived inequality in the reward for Arabic recitation compared to its recital in syntactically and semantically accurate translation. Once this notion gets assimilated and accepted by Muslims, the impact will be clearly perceptible, with the clear manifestation of better religious knowledge among a higher majority of Muslims, who presently just content themselves with the ritualistic recitation of the Quran in Arabic.
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