Senses of Devotion by Dyrness William A

Author:Dyrness, William A. [Dyrness, William A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781621895909
Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers
Published: 2013-03-29T07:00:00+00:00

Reading the Quran at Masjid Ibad Allah

Farhana’s struggle to understand what she is reading is not untypical. Since all recitations and prayers are in Arabic, most Muslims who do not speak Arabic in the home try to learn enough Arabic to follow along. Since the understanding is imperfect, therefore, the impact of the readings and recitations is primarily oral and visual. For this reason one might argue that the encounter with the text is necessarily aesthetic rather than cognitive—or at least it is aesthetic before it is cognitive. When our researcher asked Mimar, who works as a counselor at the Orange County Islamic Foundation (OCIF), whether he could understand the calligraphy that was painted throughout the mosque, he admitted that he looked for a key word that he could make out. “If you can find one key word, then you will probably know what verse in the Quran that the whole piece is saying.” Though he “respects” the use of calligraphy and can appreciate it, he is more deeply moved by the recitation itself— by what is heard, rather than what is seen. Aasif who does the call to prayers at Idad Allah reported that during Salat he stays focused on the words. “Believe it or not, while you’re making Salat, you can see . . . the Arabic words coming by, you can actually see the letters as the words go by . . . so that calligraphy is pretty powerful.”

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