The recitation of the Qurʾān in Arabic and the chanting of Arabic Sufi poetry are regular contemplative practices throughout the Muslim world that are a means of arriving at a higher state of awareness or consciousness of reality. Thus they are an epistemological route that help the reciter acquire a higher form of knowing and knowledge. Al-Fārābī (d. 951), a prominent Islamic philosopher, who was also a deep appreciator of Aristotle, wrote Kitāb al-Musiqa al-Kabīr (the Great Book of Music) in which he discussed how different sounds and resonances of music have an impact on the state of the listener. Another Muslim scholar of music theory and Sufism, Ruzbihan Baqli (d. 1209), states that Sufi music had a role in transforming the spiritual state of the listener, and could cause them to enter into different states – both spiritual and psychological/emotional.
Throughout Islamic history, the chanting and recitation of the Qurʾān has been used to incite the states that Ruzbihan Baqli mentioned but also to bring healing to those afflicted with both psychological and physical illness. Tajwīd, or the rules of proper pronunciation of the Arabic letters and verses in the Qurʾān, incorporate the use of three different regions of the throat (and even the chest) that allow for specific vibrations to take place as the reciter is chanting verses of the Qurʾān. These recitations also usually follow one of eight auditory or musical styles (maqāms). Metaphysicians and doctors have used these maqāms to bring healing to their patients with various disorders, including mental illness. Scott Kugle in his book Sufi Meditation and Contemplation exclaims, “Sufi masters are best understood as doctors. The symptoms of our existential distress are best understood as afflictions of the heart.” The foreword of Malik Badri’s book Contemplation: An Islamic Psychospiritual Study states, “Through contemplation…we can reach deep into the psyche to bring solace and healing to psychological disorders afflicting mankind, and which are better thought of as a ‘sickness of the soul’. The Qurʾān states, “We send down the Qurʾān as a healing and mercy” (17:82) and “Verily in the remembrance of God do hearts find tranquility” (13:28).
The Sufi master diagnoses and treats his students with a prescription usually containing the chanting of a series of Arabic verses of the Qurʾān, the names of God, or other verses of divine praise. Similar to how the Hindu chants “Om” to focus and harness the energy of their contemplative practice, the Muslim reciter of the Qurʾān also benefits from the natural vibrations that occur as a result of their recitation and adherence to tajwīd. Inayat Khan writes in his book, “The Mysticism of Sound and Music” that this vibratory activity is the basis of sensation and the source of all pleasure and pain.
Arabic Sufi poetry usually follows one of 16 different poetic meters that all incorporate a specific rhythm and rhyme scheme. The careful placement of the Arabic words in traditional Arabic poetry allow for ease in singing and chanting. During Sufi gatherings of dhikr (remembrance/invocation), there are many recorded cases of Sufis experiencing an altered state of consciousness, or a rapturous/ecstatic state during which the sense perceptions of the material world are decreased and the perception of the spiritual realm are increased. This is what Dr. Muhammad Faruque calls “spiritual intelligence” in his interview in the Journal of Contemplative Studies. Faruque states, “It is ultimately through contemplation that we can come to understand—we can come to experience—a kind of oneness with all things, with the natural world, and with other human beings.” He explains that this type of knowing cannot be retrieved by reading treatises on Sufism, but rather by penetrating through different levels of human consciousness within contemplative practice.
In this paper I share how the both the Qurʾān and Sufi poetry (written by well-known Sufis such as Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 1240) but also by lesser known Sufis such as ʿĀʾisha al-Bāʿūnīyya (d. 1517)) have been used as a means of acquiring a higher form of knowledge and entering into higher states of consciousness and being.
The recitation of the Qurʾān in Arabic and the chanting of Arabic Sufi poetry are regular contemplative practices throughout the Muslim world that are a means of arriving at a higher state of awareness or consciousness of reality. Thus they are an epistemological route that help the reciter acquire a higher form of knowing and knowledge. In this paper I share how the both the Qurʾān and Sufi poetry (written by well-known Sufis such as Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 1240) but also by lesser known Sufis such as ʿĀʾisha al-Bāʿūnīyya (d. 1517)) have been used as a means of acquiring a higher form of knowledge and entering into higher states of consciousness and being.