Call to Prayer...

Beginning sometime around 1996, my interest and love affair with Islam began. It was a great time of spiritual growth and my studies in Islam played a powerful role in this. Even today, I still have fond memories and find a certain sense of peace and presence of God when I reflect upon it.

One of my favorite things discovered during this time was hearing the Qur'an recited in its original Arabic. There is no question that English translations pale in comparison. Therefore, the debate over the "literal" meaning of the Qur'an does not take place in studying English translations as often happens in Biblical studies. Even studying the original Greek of the Bible is not the same as there is so much debate over which text is used in this study of the Bible.

While there is some debate over whether or not the Qur'an we have today is the same copy as existed in Muhammad's day, there is little question that whenever a final version was accepted, it has remained the only version to be copied. This version will be the same universally.

To hear it recited is a powerful tonic. I could listen to the call to prayer (adhan/azan) every day and never tire, as with Al-Fatihah, the first surah of the Qur'an.

Perhaps my favorite version I have come across is from the CD contained in Michael Sell's Approaching the Qur'an.

It is "recited" by Musrafa Ozcan Gunesdogdu, the winner of the Qur'an reading competition in Saudi Arabia in 1991. Some of his recitations can be found on YouTube.

Here is what it sounds like: