The Music of the Quran

The Music of the Quran

1988 12 December 8-9 The Music of the Quran (565) M. Gilles Guilbert proceeded then to learn Arabic script, and began reading the Quran himself. Everywhere that he went, he carried a pocket-sized copy of the sacred text with him. He even committed the shorter suras to memory. Finally, he took the great step of accepting Islam, and was renamed Abdullah Guilbert.

Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah tells of a French acquaintance of his, M. Gilles Guilbert, who often used to assert, regardless of his surroundings, that the only true criterion of a people’s culture and civilization was the standard of its love for music. Since he was by taste, nature and profession a musician, it seemed natural that he should think in this way, and his assertions were not taken too seriously. However, for M. Guilbert himself, this turned out to be a matter of the greatest seriousness.

One day he heard a Muslim qari reciting the Holy Quran and was simply enchanted by its music. The effect it had on him was so powerful that, wherever he went, he had a strong desire to hear more and more of the Quran recited. When in Paris he used even to attend Friday prayers at a Turkish mosque. When he was told that what he was listening to was not a poem but prose, he was even more intrigued and impressed. He began to wonder how it was that in all languages it was only the poetry which could be scanned, and not the prose, whereas the Arabic prose of the Quran could be scanned just as if it were poetry. It fascinated him that Arabic should have this exceptional quality.

He proceeded then to learn Arabic script, and began reading the Quran himself. Everywhere that he went, he carried a pocket-sized copy of the sacred text with him. He even committed the shorter suras to memory. Finally, he took the great step of accepting Islam, and was renamed Abdullah Guilbert.

It was in Istambul, some twenty years ago, that he explained to Dr. HamidulIah his theory that, if out of all classical or modern languages, the Arabic of the Quran was the only one whose rhythm was so mathematically precise that it could be scanned like poetry, it must be of divine, not human origin. He felt convinced, on the basis of this reasoning, that the Quran was the revealed word of God: even if a single syllable of a verse of the Quran were omitted, this could be sensed the moment it was read aloud.

Dr Hamidullah, not being a musician himself, was only very briefly impressed by this theory, but one day Guilbert came to see him at the University in a great state of perturbation. “Surely our Muslim ancestors have somehow lost some passages of the Quran,” he said. “In chapter 110 (AI-Nasr) they read and write afwaajaa fasabbih which, from the musical point of view, is an impossibility.” Dr Hamidullah then set his fears at rest by reassuring him from his ‘humble knowledge’ of tajweed (psalmody of the Quran) that there was an alternative way of reading it – afwaajan fasabbih – and that afwaaj could be pronounced ‘afwaajan’, which meant there being one more syllable before fasabbih. Guilbert, on hearing this, was like a man recovering from a trance, and he said with great relief, “Oh, if that is so, then, all is well, nothing is lacking, and I can renew my faith.”