CAIRO – A video showing Indonesian orchestra playing for a singer who sings the Qur’an verses has sparked angry condemnations across social networks, rejecting the performance as against the teaching of Islam and failing to pay due respect to the Noble Qur’an.
“Brothers and sister in here and all over the world. This is not Islamic and not even allowed by Islam to sing the Quran with music,” a person who uses YouTube user name Ben Ba-Aden wrote.
“The person who did this will be cursed by Allah for his/ her work in doing such a thing to malformation the believe [sic] of 1.6 billion Muslim believers world wide.”
The video, posted on May 19 by Almasdar KSA YouTube channel, has been viewed for more than 68,000 times.
Titled, “This is how they recite the Qur’an in Indonesia”, the video has drawn scores of condemnations on Almasdar channel.
In the video, the unidentified singer ‘sings’ a verse from the Qur’an 49:13 which reads as follows, “People, We created you all from a single man and a single woman, and made you into races and tribes so that you should recognize one another. In God’s eyes, the most honored of you are the ones most mindful of Him: God is all knowing, all aware.”
No other sources confirmed the location or date of the concert in the video which drew angry criticism.
“Make the Quran as a song! God damn you!,” a user using the name DonCorleoneQ8 wrote.
“Is this really in Jakarta, Indonesia? Where are the Indonesian Ulema council, its president and members? Where is the Islamic center in Jakarta and the International Union of Muslim Scholars?” a user using the nickname Rabi al Awwal added.
“Do they know what they are singing?” Riad Abi Chahla wrote.
Indonesia is the most populous Muslim state where Muslims make up 80% percent of the 220 million population.
The Qur’an is the Word of Allah. It is the most sacred book. Muslims must respect this book and must honor it.
For one reciting the Qur’an, that he/she should approach Allah’s Book with the best of manners, humility and respect.
Intoning the Qur’an is endeared to the hearing and helps with memorizing, as it gets the tongue familiar with a given tune and an error is easily identified when the usual tune varies in one way or another.
Yet, it is not permissible to chant words other than Qur’an in the manner in which Qur’an is recited, especially in front of the common folk who cannot distinguish between Qur’an and other words except by the intonation and recitation.