Preserving Tradition

Upon receiving the first Qur’anic revelation, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) engaged himself in the duty of conveying the message to his Companions through reciting the exact words he heard in their exact order. Large portions of the revelation were easily memorised by a large number of people in the community of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) encouraged his Companions to learn each verse that was revealed and transmitt it to others. Through these means, many repeatedly heard passages from the revelation recited to them, memorized them and used them in prayer. The entire Quran was memorized verbatim (word for word) by some of the Prophet’s Companions. As the Companions spread out to various provinces and across the Arabian Peninsula and beyond, they continued to instruct and teach all those around them in this way. Memorization of the Qur’an emerged into a continuous tradition across the centuries, with centers and schools for memorization being established across the Muslim world. Students learn and memorize the Qur’an along with Tajweed, at the feet of a teacher and master who in turn acquired the knowledge from his teacher, an ‘un-broken chain’ going all the way back to the Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). After mastery is achieved and the recitation checked for lack of errors, a person is granted a formal license (Ijaza) certifying they have mastered the rules of recitation and can now recite the Qur’an the way it was recited by Muhammad, the Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) Add image – The image is a typical license (ijaza) issued at the end of perfecting Quran recitation certifying a reciter’s unbroken chain of instructors going back to the Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings be upon him). The Academy is blessed to have leading teachers from Al-Azhar university, Cairo, one of the oldest Universities in the world and beacon of Islamic scholarship and Qur’anic recitation.