US Reciters Prepare For Ramadan Prayers

As the holy fasting month of Ramadan knocks the doors, US mosques prepare for crowds of worshippers who flock to daily night Tarawih prayers by lodging their best Qur’an reciters to lead the lengthy prayers.
“The Ramadan prayers are long, so it makes it that much nicer,” Hatim Yousef, one of the reciters at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling, told the Washington Post.
US Muslims will celebrate the start of the holy fasting month on Monday, August 1.
As Ramadan arrives, US Muslims, even those who are less-observant, flock to mosques for daily prayers, especially Tarawih prayers which start at about 10 pm till midnight after sunset breakfast.
Yousef, himself a Qur’an reciter, knows that worshippers prefer to pray after an imam with a melodic voice in reciting the holy Qur’an.
Reciting in a soft, melodious voice to around 3000 people who come each night to the mosque seven branches, Yousef says his goal in leading prayer is for listeners to be engrossed in scripture.
“I feel success if people have more presence of prayer, if they are more connected to God, if they sort of don’t focus or don’t mention or think about anything but the Koran,” he said in the upstairs prayer hall with his students reciting Qur’an.
Mosques also tend to make available a hafez, who has memorized the complete text of the holy Qur’an, during Tarawih prayers.
Among Yousef’s students, a 14-year-old who has become a hafiz, will sit beside him during the Ramadan prayers and follow along to correct him if he makes any errors.
In Ramadan, adult Muslims, save the sick and those traveling, abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.
Muslims dedicate their time during the holy month to be closer to Allah through prayers, self-restraint and good deeds.
It is customary for Muslims to spend part of the days during Ramadan studying the Noble Qur’an.
Many men perform i`tikaf (spiritual retreat), spending the last 10 days of the month exclusively in the mosque.

Difficulties

In the relatively new Muslim community in US, reciters were not always easy to find.
Facing recent restrictions on giving visas to Muslim scholars and reciters from the Middle East, many US born youth were taking responsibility on leading that role.  
Yousef, 35, grew up studying Islam’s sacred music in Dubai and then English literature, focusing in graduate school on Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
Now, he leads some of the regular prayers during the year at ADAMS and teaches Koran at the mosque’s school.
A new imam-training program, the first accredited in the country, was also submitted by International Institute of Islamic Thought in Herndon, offering a preaching course taught by an Episcopal priest.
Other mosques were lucky to hire famous reciters to lead worshippers during Ramadan, such as the Islamic Center Northern Virginia in Fairfax’s Sheikh Mohammad Alraee who is in the area from Saudi Arabia to get his PhD in systems management.
“Once you listen to his voice, it’s a whole different spiritual experience,” said Muhammad Farooq, president of the mosque.
Muslims aim to read the entire Qur’an during the month of Ramadan, and when Alraee gets to the end, Farooq said, “thousands of people are crying, listening to him.”

Source: OnIslam & Newspapers