Qur'aan singers: From the Signs of the Hour

بسم الله والحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله ، وبعد

🌟 From the signs of the hours: Giving preference to the man with a nice voice to lead the prayers

The Messenger of Allaah ﷺ said:

❝Hasten to (good) deeds (before the appearance) of six traits:

➡1. The leadership of the foolish,

➡2. Abundance of (corrupt) police (squads),

➡3. Severing ties of kinship,

➡4. Selling of justice (and loss of trustworthiness through bribing),

➡5. Making light of bloodshed,

➡6. Emergence of a (new) generation who will recite the Qur’aan like singing. They (the people) will sent forth a man (to lead them in prayers) even though he would not be the one who has the most understanding or more knowledgeable than them. They will not send him forth except that he sings it (the Qur’aan) for them.❞

📚[al-Tabaraanee in al-Kabeer (59, 60) and the wording is his, Musnad Ahmad (16040, 23970) and graded as “Saheeh” by Shaikh al-Albaanee. In Musnad Ahmad, the wording is: ❝Emergence of a (new) generation who will recite the Qur’aan like singing. They will send him forth so that he sings it (the Qur’aan) for them, even though he would be the least knowledgeable among them.❞]

📑 There is a difference between beautifying your voice while reciting the Qur’aan, which is recommended, and reciting the Qur’aan like singing, which is disparaged.

📑 In Faidh al-Qadeer it is mentioned that “singing the Qur’aan” means: “reciting it like a song, in which the words are stretched or shrunk, or recited out of place (while ignoring the rules of Tajweed).”

📑 Al-`Allaamah Abu `Abdullaah Ibn al-Haaj al-Maalikee رحمه الله (d. 737H) said:

“Chapter: The characteristics of the Imaam who should be made to lead the night prayers in Ramadhaan:

He should be from the people of knowledge, known for his good manners and religiosity, in opposition to what some of them do today. A majority of them send forth a man to lead them in prayer because of his nice voice and not because of his religiosity. And Imaam Maalik had said: The people, who give precedence to the man with a nice voice to lead them in prayer, in fact send him forth so that he could sing it (the Qur’aan) to them.”

📚 [al-Madkhal of Ibn al-Haaj (2/292)]