The Means of Arabic Qurʾān Recitation and Poetry Chanting to Arrive at Higher Forms of Knowing

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.