Memorizing the Qur'an
One of the recurring themes in my book is personal reinvention. In various phases of my life I created a fantasy of a future world and went about doing the hard work to bring that fantasy to reality. When I became obsessed with Islam, it didn’t take long for me to realize the importance of the Qur’an to Muslims.
As a Ph.D. student in religion, I knew that it would never be enough for me to casually peruse Islamic texts. If I wanted to truly understand Islam, I would need to immerse myself in the nuances of the religion and how people practiced it around the world. I pursued that belief through Oman, Yemen, Syria, and Jordan. I sought out those people who had the most knowledge about Islam and did whatever it took to learn as much as I could.
During a particularly important time in my preparation to consult military and political officials, I got caught up in Qur’anic recitation and it changed my life. The Qur’an is considered the literal Word of God—not simply an interpretation or perspective on God’s Will—and every single word and letter has sacred value. Rather than comparing the Qur’an to the Bible, for example, it is more appropriate to compare the Qur’an to Jesus. Just as Jesus is considered to be the Logos of God, the Qur’an is the spoken word of Allah.
What I didn’t know was that my characteristic obsessive behavior would change the way I thought about God and the spiritual aspects of Islam. In this section of my book, I talk about how I changed everything about my life to develop a deeper understanding of one of the most important texts for fundamentalist Muslims.
I didn’t know any fundamentalists in Chicago, so memorizing the Qur’an became my newest obsession. I replaced all of the music from my iPod with a recitation by Sa‘ad al-Ghamdi because I knew the Qur’an was the most important text for Muslims. Sa‘ad is a Saudi tenor whose voice is so clear and powerful that it can tell the story of the Qur’an for people who don’t understand Arabic. The Qur’an is vivid in its descriptions but when Sa‘ad recited it, I could see myself soaring through the sky or sitting at the feet of the angel Gabriel. His voice reminded me of Gregorian chant and transported me to another world where I began to understand the power of the Qur’an. I devoted myself to the Qur’an in a way that felt deeply personal and it helped me understand the spiritual life of Islam.
Memorizing the Qu’ran is an exact science and I scoured books in Arabic and English to learn every rule. There are places where you had to pause and other places where you could not pause. Certain sounds had to be omitted in specific situations and there were a few passages where you had to kneel as you recited a verse. It wasn’t good enough to just memorize the words, I needed to know things like when to elongate certain vowels or lower the volume of my voice.
I hoped that memorizing the Qur’an would help me interact with Muslims better, but the more I did it, the more it changed my perspective on Islam. It taught me about Islam and reciting the Qur’an became my own spiritual exercise. I started to feel the awe that Muslims talk about when they describe their commitment to the Prophet Muhammad. It wasn’t necessarily the words or the history that I was learning, it was the passion in Sa‘ad’s voice. He lamented the disobedience of sinners with such conviction that it changed the way I thought about Islam’s call to religious obedience. By the winter of 2004 I was obsessed with the Qur’an and carried a copy everywhere I went. I blocked out the world rushing past the train window by dragging my finger across the page to the rhythm of Sa‘ad’s powerful voice.