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Mahmoud Khalil Al-Hussary

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Sheikh Mahmoud Khalil al-Hussary (Arabic: الشَّيْخ مَحْمُود خَلِيل الْحُصَرِيّ ash-Shaykh Maḥmūd Khalīl al-Ḥuṣarī; September 17, 1917 – November 24, 1980) also known as Al-Hussary, was an Egyptian qāriʾ widely acclaimed for his accurate recitation of the Qur'an.[1][2][3][5] Al-Hussary committed the entire Qur'an to memory by age 8 and started reciting at public gatherings by age 12. In 1944, Al-Hussary won Egypt Radio's Qu'ran Recitation competition which had around 200 participants, including veterans like Muhammad Rifat.[5] The quadrumvirate of El Minshawy, Abdul Basit, Mustafa Ismail, and Al-Hussary are generally considered the most important and famous qurrāʾ of modern times to have had an outsized impact on the Islamic world.[6][7][8][9]: 83 

Shaykh al Maqâri
Mahmoud Khalil Al-Hussary
الشَّيْخ مَحْمُود خَلِيل الْحُصَرِيّ
Personal
Born
Mahmoud Khalil

September 17, 1917
Shobra al-Namla, Tanta, Egypt
DiedNovember 24, 1980(1980-11-24) (aged 63)
Cairo, Egypt
ReligionSunni Islam
NationalityEgypt Egyptian
Children
  • Dr. Mohammed Al-Hussary
  • Yasmine Al-Khayam
Alma materAl Azhar University,[1] Cairo
Known for
Other names
  • Al-Hussary
  • Shaykh Hussary
Occupation
At-Tin (murattal), Al-Hussary

Career

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Early life

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Mahmoud entered the Qur'an School at the age of four, and by age 9[1][10] (or by 11),[5] he had already memorized the entire Qur'an. By age 11, he had enrolled for training at the acclaimed al-Badawi Mosque in Tanta.[5] He later joined Al-Azhar University in Cairo[1] and was conferred with diploma in al-Qirāʾāt al-ʿAshar (Arabic: الْقِرَاءَات الْعَشَر, lit. 'the ten recitations').[11][10]

Service

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He moved to Cairo and joined Egypt's official Qur'an radio station as a reciter making his first appearance on February 16, 1944. Just a year later, in 1945, al-Hussary was appointed reciter at the Ahmad al-Badawi mosque.[5][10] On August 7, 1948, he was nominated mu'adhin of the Sidi Hamza Mosque and later, a muqriʾ (Arabic: مُقْرِئ, lit. 'reciter') at the same mosque.[12] He also supervised recitation centers in the al-Gharbia province.[12] Though a conflicting report claims he served at the Ahmad al-Badawi mosque for 10 straight years.[5]

In 1955, he was appointed to the Al-Hussein Mosque in Cairo and remained in-service there for 29 years, until his death.[5][12]

He achieved numerous accolades during this time.

At Al-Azhar

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After returning to Cairo, al-Hussary studied and taught at Al-Azhar University.[5] In 1960, he led the department of al-Ḥadīth bi-Jāmiʿ al-Buḥūth al-ʾIslāmiyya (Arabic: الْحَدِيث بِجَامِع الْبُحُوث الْإِسْلَامِيَّة) for correcting Qur'anic codexes present in the al-Azhar libraries.[11][10]

As one of the four top-ranking reciters in Egypt,[6] he recorded the complete Qur'anic text in both styles of recitation, murattal (tarteel) and mujawwad (tajwid) and was, in fact, first-ever qāriʾ to record and broadcast the murattal style.[1][4] He recorded and wrote treatises on various Qur'an recital styles: Ḥafs ʿan ʿĀṣim in 1961,[10] Warsh ʿan Nāfiʾ in 1964, Qālān ʿan Nāfiʾ and ad-Dūrī ʿan Abi ʿAmr in 1968.[1][5][11] In the same year, he recorded the Qu'ran in the style known as al-Muṣḥaf al-Muʿallim (Arabic: المصحف المُعلّم, lit. 'the Teaching Qur'an'), a technique of tartīl with exclusive focus on pedagogy.[5]

Al-Hussary authored 12 books on Qur'anic sciences in a bid to end corruption of both the text and the recitation styles.[5][10]

Recognition and awards

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In 1944, Al-Hussary won Egypt Radio's Qu'ran Recitation competition[10] which had around 200 participants, among them some veterans like Muhammad Rifat, Ali Mahmud, and Abd Al-Fattah Ash-Sha'sha'i.[5]

Al-Azhar awarded him the title Shaykh al-Maqāriʾ (Arabic: شـيخ المقارِئ, lit. 'Scholar of the Reciting Schools') in 1957.[10][11] He was also appointed to the board of Islamic research on Hadith and the Qur'an at Al-Azhar.[5]

He was a recipient of the Egyptian Medal of Honour for Arts and Sciences, First Grade, from the Egyptian president Gamal 'Abd Al-Nasir, in 1967. The same year, he was elected the President of the Islamic World League of Qur'an Reciters.[5][10]

Tours

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In 1960, he travelled to Pakistan and India, the first Egyptian qāriʾ to do so, to recite at a conference[13] in the presence of the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the first Egyptian President, Gamal Abdul Nasir.[1][14] He accompanied the Rector of Al-Azhar University on their travels.[5] He was invited to participate in the World of Islam Festival[15] in London (1976).[16] He has recited the Qur'an in front of the American Congress, the United Nations in 1977,[5][14] and at Buckingham Palace in 1978.[1] He has been on Qur'an recital tours to the Philippines, China, France, and Singapore; in addition to touring other Muslim countries, mostly during the month of Ramadan.[5][11]

Technique

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Al Hussary was a strong proponent of preserving the qiraat art-form in its original scheme (tarteel) and was publicly apprehensive of innovation in recital delivery techniques.[9]: 110  He once said:[5]

The tarteel shapes every word with an evocative manner, a fact that cannot be produced during a pure "chanted" interpretation where words are subjected to a certain musicality which can be opposing to the necessary sound print to reach the real meaning. And if we feel the melodic saturation during the “chanted” interpretation, we feel, on the other hand, calmness and introversion during tarteel derived from the message of the holy Qur'an.

In another instance, he said:[5]

The tarteel puts us directly on the screen of the Qur'anic text. It puts us in an active listening position and makes the listener feel the responsibility to listen. However, "chanted" restitution borrows passages of introversion by an envelope of jollity; the tarteel is more difficult because it reveals faithfully the meaning. The roots of tarteel deal basically with the Qur'anic text and not the musical rhythms.

In the preface of one of his books, Ma` Al-Qur’an Al-Karim (lit. With the Holy Qur'an), Shaykh Mahmud Shaltut, the then chief Imam of the al-Azhar mosque, said about him:[5]

God has given to many people the goods of this world and beyond, and granted them by giving them happiness in the two shelters through this right path, the path of the holy Qur'an. They learned it, recite it and honoured it as it should be. They struggled to protect it and found joy in it because it always guided them towards truth and the right path. Among those, I have known our son Sheikh Khalîl Al-Husarî. I have descoverd in him an excellent recitor who observes God with a huge fear in his recitation by following the methodology of our pious precursors in the reading of Allah’s Book, and never moved aside from it. His recitation fulfils the hearts with peace, security and calmness, and opens to his audience the gates of faith.

Death

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He died of liver failure[11] on 24 November 1980 during a trip to Kuwait.[4] His last public recitals were at the Kaaba in Mecca and Masjid al Nabawi in Medina.[10]

Legacy

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Al-Hosary Mosque of Cairo inaugurated in 2005

Based on Al-Hussary's life,[12] a TV series titled ʾImām al-Muqriʾīn (Arabic: إِمَام الْمُقْرِئِين, lit. 'The Chief of Qur'an Reciters') starring Hassan Youssef was created by Dr. Bahaa El-Din Ibrahim and directed by Mustafa Al-Shall,[17] with backing from Hussary's children, Mohammed Al-Hussary and Yasmine Al-Khayam.[18]

 
Mosque Sultan Al-Muayyad Sheikh of Cairo inaugurated in 2003

At the time of his death in 1980, he left a third of his wealth to build a mosque on Al-Ajuzah Street in Cairo.[5][10][19]: 155  In his will, he left the expenses for the mosque he had built in Tanta, as well as for the three Islamic institutes and a center dedicated to Qur'an memorization, Maʿhad al-ʾAzhar (Arabic: معهد الأزهر, lit. 'the luminous institute'), in his village, Shobra al-Namla.[5][11]

In what's a testament to Al-Hussary's standing in the profession, Mohammed Burhanuddin, a strong proponent of Qur'anic sciences, education, and memorization,[20][21] conferred his grandson, Husain Burhanuddin, with the title Ḥuṣarī l-Hind (Arabic: حُصَرِيّ الهند, lit. 'Hussary of India').[3]

The 26th International Qur'an Contest hosted by Egypt was named after him in his honour.[22]

Al-Hussary's family runs a charity called the "Shaykh al-Hussary Society" (Arabic: جَمْعِيَّة الشَّيْخ الْحُصَرِيّ, romanized: Jamʿiyyat ash/-Shaykh al-Ḥuṣarī), chaired by his daughter, Yasmeen al-Khayam (née Al-Hussary).[23] The Society built Al-Hosary, the largest mosque in 6th of October City, inaugurated in October 2005,[24] in his honour. The mosque complex, a major landmark of the city, also has an orphanage, a Qur'anic institute, and multi-purpose auditoriums.[25] The mosque rather remarkably hosts sermons from contrarians such as Amr Khaled[26] as well as orthodox clergy of Al-Azhar,[19]: 155  and government ministers.[24] The Society has been instrumental in resettling Syrian refugees in Egypt.[27]

Al-Hussary's recordings are extensively used for Qur'anic memorization and recitation throughout the Muslim world.[8][28][29][30][31]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Obeyd Choudry (19 March 2013). "Sh. Al-Husary – Spotlight on Islamic Traditions". messageinternational.org. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  2. ^ a b Idrees Ally. "3 Lesson from Shaykh al-Husary". reciteintune.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Taha Soeb (29 Aug 2019). "Setting The Tune – Tajweed in Ashara Mubaraka 1441 AH". tajweedexplained.com. Archived from the original on 26 October 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d "Prominent Egyptian qāriʾ Was Proud of Serving Quran, Says Daughter". iqna.ir. 25 Nov 2019. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v "Biography of Mahmoud Khalil Al Hussary". assajda.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020.
  6. ^ a b Taha Shoeb (2 Feb 2018). "Khalaf from Hamzah – A look at the features of recitation of al-Qur'an by Shahzada Husain Bhaisaheb". thedawoodibohras.com. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020.
  7. ^ Ejaz Taj (6 Sep 2018). "A Meeting with the Egyptian Giants, al-Minshāwī, al-Huṣrī, Muṣṭafā Ismāʿīl and ʿAbdul-Bāsit ʿAbdus-Ṣamad". islam21c.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  8. ^ a b "Best Quran Recitation Competition for Students Planned in Egypt". iqna.ir. 4 May 2020. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020.
  9. ^ a b Frishkopf, Michael (28 Dec 2009). "Mediated Qur'anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam in Contemporary Egypt". In Nooshin, Laundan (ed.). In Music and Play of Power in the Middle East (pdf). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0754634577. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020 – via pdfslide.net.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Sheikh Mahmoud Al Hosari". elhosary.org (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g "Shaykh Mahmud Khalil al-Hushari, Imam In Qiraat". kisahmuslim.com (in Indonesian). Archived from the original on 7 June 2019.
  12. ^ a b c d "Biography of Mahmoud Khalil Al Hussary". assabile.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  13. ^ Kabir Taneja (19 Jan 2014). "Nehru's friendship for Nasser's Egypt was a 'tunnel-vision' policy".
  14. ^ a b Karta Raharja Ucu (14 Apr 2018). "Shalawat Tarhim dari Syekh Al-Husary dinilai mampu membuat hati pendengarnya terenyuh". republike.co.id (in Indonesian). Archived from the original on 19 May 2020.
  15. ^ John Sabini (June 1976). "The World of Islam - Its Festival". archive.aramcoworld.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020.
  16. ^ Pliable (9 Nov 2015). "Classical musician's brave journey from Mozart to Morisco". overgrownpath.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020.
  17. ^ Ahmed Abdel Razak (27 Oct 2005). "Wait for Hassan Yossef's surprises after Eid al-Fitr". filfan.com (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 23 May 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  18. ^ "حسن يوسف الفنان الذي يكره ذكرياته: أشعر بالدهشة عند مشاهدة أفلامي القديمة". al-jazirah.com (in Arabic). 6 Jul 2004. Archived from the original on 16 March 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  19. ^ a b Abdo, Geneive (9 Nov 2004). "Taking the Veil". No God but God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195157932.
  20. ^ "Qur'an al-Majeed". thedawoodibohras.com. Archived from the original on 26 January 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  21. ^ "Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Syedna to the World Islamic Festival". thedawoodibohras.com. 2 Feb 2018. Archived from the original on 26 January 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  22. ^ "Int'l Quran Competition Underway in Egypt". iqna.ir. 24 Mar 2019. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020.
  23. ^ "Board of Directors - Sheikh Al Hosary Society". elhosary.org (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 11 February 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  24. ^ a b "Sheikh El-Hosary Mosque". elhosary.org (in Arabic). 26 Jan 2016. Archived from the original on 8 July 2019. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  25. ^ "Structural Design of Al-Hosary Islamic Complex". masterpeers.com. Archived from the original on 21 May 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  26. ^ Rania Al-Malky (19 Sep 2018). "Egypt's televangelists tailor their message: See no evil and life will be good". middleeasteye.net. Archived from the original on 21 May 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  27. ^ Zeinab El-Gundy (20 Mar 2016). "'A visit to Syria' in Egypt's 6th of October City". ahram.org.ag. Archived from the original on 21 May 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  28. ^ "Int'l Quran Contest for Women Wraps Up in Dubai". iqna.ir. 9 Nov 2019. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020.
  29. ^ "Bosnia Representative Urges for Monthly Online Quran Competitions". iqna.ir. 15 Dec 2014. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020.
  30. ^ "Woman who Memorized the Quran at 82". iqna.ir. 19 Dec 2008. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020.
  31. ^ "Al-Azhar Uses 'Electronic Book' for Quran Memorization". iqna.ir. 30 Sep 2019. Archived from the original on 3 October 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
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