Aleksandra Kowalczyk

al–sawt al–hasan

the spiritual dimension of the voice in Muslim culture

This is a text about the role of the voice in Islamic religious music. It analyzes the call to prayer (azan), recitation of the Quran (qiraa) and Sufi song (ghina) based on the writings of Muslim thinkers such as Al Ghazali, Muhammad al-Bukhari, Rumi and Darwish Ali Changi. It turns out that the voice is the most effective link to the sacred, but only if it has certain properties. Moreover, when listened to properly, it can be a source of religious ecstasy.

The text was published in the book "Song Studies: Poetics and Politics of Song Production" edited by Waldemar Kuligowski and Paweł Tański (Oskar Kolberg Institute, Poznań 2021). LINK