Archive for the ‘Other Reciters’ Category

Famous Reciters’ Biographies

Monday, May 29th, 2006

Shaykh Mahmud Abd al-Hakam [d. 1982]. Born in Karnak in Upper Egypt, he came to

Cairo in 1933, having established his reputation in the south. His first intention was to study at al-Azhar, as reciting was secondary to his studies. However, because of his voice, he was encouraged to become a professional reciter. He said it is the Radio which really encourages professionalism: employment by the Radio is important in establishing an audience and a wide reputation. He was with the Radio since 1944. Shaykh cAbd al-Hakam cited Shaykh Rifcat as the major influence on his reciting, although he also listened to Shaykh cAlî Mahmood, Shaykh al-Sacsâcî, and others not known generally in

Cairo . He never studied music, but considered music beneficial to recitation. Shaykh cAbd al-Hakam is admired for the dignity and correctness of his reciting as well as a subdued but fluent musicality.

Shaykh cAbd al-Bâsit cAbd al-Samad [b. 1927]. He came to Cairo from the city of Armant in

Upper Egypt in 1950, having established his reputation in the south. He is the first reciter in his family, but his grandfather was a religious scholar of al-Azhar training. Shaykh cAbd al-Bâsit is probably the best-known of Egyptian reciters outside of , as he was the first to make commercial recordings of his reciting, and he has traveled extensively outside of . Among his recordings are the complete text of the Qur’ân in both styles, murattal and mujawwad. Shaykh cAbd al-Bâsit is one of thc four top-ranking reciters in . He was the first president of the newly formed Reciters’

Union . Shaykh cAbd al-Bâsit is admired for breath control and his high, clear (harîmî) voice.

 

Shaykh Kâmil Yûsuf al-Bahtîmî [d. 1969 at the age of about forty seven]. He was the protégé of Shaykh Muhammad Salâmah, and it is said that the influence of his mentor shows in his high registers and melodic cadences. The influence of Shaykh Rifcat shows in the lower registers. Shaykh Kâmil studied music with Ahmad Sabra. He is especially admired for the quality of his voice; he is one of the few reciters whose voice is equally clear, strong, and relaxed in both the high and low registers. It is also said that he is one of the few reciters whose studio recordings are as effective as the live performance recordings.

Shaykh Hâsim Haybah [b. ca. 1920]. He is from a village north of

Cairo , near Benha. His father was the owner of a rug factory. Shaykh Hâsim says that he always wanted to be a reciter. He memorized the Qur’ân and learned the qirâ’ât. In those days (1927-34) there was no recitation on the Radio, so he learned the art by listening to reciters in person. He also learned his music by listening. He journeyed to Cairo to hear Shaykh

cAli Mahmûd recite, and stayed, listening to Shaykh Muhammad Rifcat and Shaykh Muhammad Salâmah. He joined the Radio in 1951. Shaykh Hâsim has also established himself as a singer of religious songs. His voice is light and high, and fluent with ornamentation.

Shaykh Mahmûd Khalîl al-Husarî [d. I980]. He was born near Tanta [north of

Cairo ]. When he was twenty-five years of age he went to

Tanta and established himself as a reciter. He was the reciter at the well-known Ahmadî mosque there. Ten years later he moved to

Cairo , joined the Radio in 1944, and became the reciter at the Husayn mosque in 1955. In Cairo Shaykh al-Husarî also studied at

al-Azhar University : he was a well-known religious scholar and author of many books on various aspects of the Qur’ân. He was also involved in the recent Azhari printing of the Qur’ânic text. His status as reciter was somewhat official: he held the title Shaykh al-Maqâri, and his opinions were frequently solicited and quoted by the media. He also accompanied the rector of al-Azhar on his travels and was invited to participate in the World of Islam festival in

London (1976). Shaykh al-Husarî’s recordings are widely distributed outside . As one of the four top-ranking reciters in , he recorded the complete Qur’ânic text in both styles of recitation, murattal and mujawwad and was the first to record and broadcast the murattal style. Shaykh al-Husarî is known for the correctness of his recitation. His son also recites professionally.

 

Shaykh Mustafâ Ismâcîl [1905-1978]. Born in Mît Ghazâl, a village near Tanta (north of Cairo), Shaykh Mustafâ learned the Qur’ân, and about the age of fifteen or sixteen he went to study at the Azhari institute in

Tanta . He studied the Qur’ânic sciences and planned to continue his studies at

al-Azhar University in

Cairo , but was encouraged to become a reciter. He began to establish his reputation in the Delta in the 1930s. Shaykh Mustafa first went to

Cairo in response to an invitation to recite. He soon established his reputation in

Cairo and was invited to recite for King Farouk during Ramadan, 1944. He joined the Radio soon after, having negotiated for longer recordings, as his voice needed a minimum of time to warm up. Shaykh Mustafa admired the reciting of Shaykh Muhammad Rifcat and Shaykh cAbd al-Fattâh al-Sacsâcî but was proud of his own unique style. He did not study music formally, but mastered the art by listening, and from his associations with the best musicians of his day. Shaykh Mustafa traveled extensively and was known abroad from his personal appearances. Although as a top-ranking reciter he recorded the complete text of the Qur’ân in both the murattal and mujawwad styles, his recordings are not generally available outside . Shaykh Mustafa was the official reciter of Anwâr al-Sadât and traveled with him to

Jerusalem in 1978. Shaykh Mustafa is considered one of the most effective reciters of this century, extremely innovative musically, yet correct in tajweed. One can count a generation of younger reciters among his imitators. At the time of his death, Shaykh Mustafa was reciter at the prestigious al-Azhar mosque.

Shaykh Muhammad Siddîq al-Minshâwî [d. early 1970s?]. He is of the same generation as Shaykh Kamil Yûsuf al-Bahtimî, and, in fact, he was also a protégé of Shaykh Muhammad Salâmah. His father was also a well-known reciter, and his brother, Shaykh Mahmûd al-Minshâwî, has now established himself as a respected professional reciter in

Cairo . Shaykh al-Minshâwî was born in Upper Egypt and established himself as a reciter there before coming to

Cairo . He is especially admired for the spirituality, gravity, and dignity of his style.

Shaykh cAlî Mahmûd [1878-1949]. Also admired for his singing (he made a number of commercial recordings), Shaykh cAlî Mahmûd is one of the models for musical reciting. It is said that he would render the call to prayer from the Husayn mosque with a differeut maqaam for each day of the week. A number of reciters, such as Shaykh Muhammad Salâmah, and Shaykh Mahmûd Muhammad Ramadan, show and acknowledge his influence on their own style of recitation. His style is characterized by the melodic cadences and a density of modulations.

 

Shaykh Fathî Qandîl. He grew up in rural , where he was taught the Qur’ân by his father. He studied at the Azhari institute in Tanta, then at al-Azhar University in Cairo, where he earned an advanced degree in Qur’ânic sciences. He teaches tajwîd and qirâ’ât at the

Institute of

Qirâ ‘ât in Suhra. Shaykh Fathî began reciting for the Radio in 1970. He studied music at the Music Institute in

Cairo .

Shaykh Mahmûd Muhammad Ramadan. Shaykh Ramadan was born {ca. 1929) in the same baladi area of

Cairo in which he still lives. His father was a cloth merchant. He learned the Qur’ân in the kuttâb, thc traditional primary school, and continued his studies with a Shaykh, from whom he also learned tajwîd. He learned music by listening and studying with private tutors, among them the prominent qanoon player Ahmad Sabra. Shaykh Ramadan joined the ranks of Radio reciters in 1972. He is highly respected for his musicality, and he acknowledges the influence of a number of reciters on his style. He is considered to be of the "school" of Shaykh cAlî Mahmûd.

Shaykh Muhammad Rifcat [1882-I950]. His father was a merchant. Shaykh Rifcat is unanimously considered the best reciter of this century. He is admired for his musicality, his mastery and understanding of the art of recitation in all of its aspects, his spirituality and uprightness, and his right intent. Shaykh Rifcat was the first reciter to broadcast his recitation (1934), and his voice and style, as well as his general character, have been a model of the ideal reciter to generations of Egyptians and others ever since. Music critic and composer Suleiman Gamil specifies aspects of Shaykh Rifcat’s style such as the unpredictability of the melodic line and the resonance of his voice. Others point to his mastery in correlating melody to meaning (taswîr al-macnâ). In addition to recordings made by the Radio, there exist a great number of recordings made by Zakariyyâ Muhrân Bâsâ and Muhammad Khamîs which his son, Mr. Husayn Rifcat, is dedicated to making available to the public.

Shaykh Muhammad Salâmah (ca. 1888/1900- 1982). Shaykh Salâmah was a student at

al-Azhar University , and at the age of nineteen was encouraged to become a reciter. He had already been reciting since the age of ten. Shaykh Salâmah fought in the Sacdist rebellion against the British in 1919 and proudly acknowledged his role in that. He is the only prominent reciter who refused to record for the Radio, one of the reasons being the latter’s failure to comply with certain conditions set by him, such as not having the Qur’ân broadcast into the streets and taverns and not having the female announcer present in the same room while he was rccording. He participated in a conference of reciters in 1937 which resulted in the establishment of a Reciters’Association. The issue at stake was that some reciters were afraid that broadcasting recitation would harm the less prominent reciters, as their services would be less in demand. Shaykh Salâmah was both extremely articulate and sincere about his faith. In performance he was restrained in his gestures, ignoring the admiring comments, even turning away from those who came up to kiss his hand or compliment him. Only in the high registers did he seem to me to interact with his listeners. When another reciter was performing, Shaykh Salâmah would listen with eyes closed and head bowed. He was the acknowledged mentor of Shaykh Kâmil Yusuf al-Bahtimi and Shaykh Muhammad Siddîq al-Minshâwî, both of whom lived in his house for a period of time. Some speak of the ’school’ of Shaykh Muhammad Salâmah as being in a direct line from thc style of Shaykh cAlî Mahmûd. Shaykh Salâmah studied music with Shaykh Darwees. al-Hareeree, teacher of several prominent musicians and reciters, such as Shaykh

cAli Mahmood, Shaykh Sayyid Darwees, and Shaykh Zakariyya Ahmad. He used to sing and play the cûd until the death of his wife. Shaykh Salâmah is considered to be second only to Shaykh Rifcat in correlating melody to meaning (taswîr al-macnâ).

Shaykh Ahmad al-Ruzayqî (b. ca. 1939). One of the younger generation of reciters, he grew up in

Upper Egypt in thc same area as Shaykh cAbd al-Bâsit cAbd al-Samad, and Shaykh Muhammad Siddîq al-Minshâwî. Shaykh Ahmad was encouraged to become a reciter because of his beautiful voice. He recited in public at Qina, and at the age of twenty entered the Music Institute to study the art of Arabic music. He also learned from listening to Shaykh Rifcat, Shaykh Mustafa Ismâ’îl, and Shaykh cAbd al-Bâsit cAbd al-Samad, but considers Shaykh Muhammad Siddîq al-Minshâwî his mentor because they have similar deep voices and voice quality, are from the same area, and used to recite on the same program. Shaykh Ahmad sings and plays the cûd as well. He is president of the Reciters’

Union .

Shaykh Ibrâhîm al-Sacsâcî (b. 1930,

Cairo ). He is the son of another prominent reciter, Shaykh cAbd al-Fattaah al-Sacsâcî. His grandfather was also a reciter, and now his son is beginning Qur’ânic studies. He memorized the Qur’ân, learned tajwîd and qirâ’ât in school with Shaykh cAmir cUthmân (see below), and received a degree from the Azhari institute. He then studied for three years with Shaykh Darwîs al- Harîrî, a famous musician and teacher. He did not begin to recite in public until 1954-55. Shaykh Ibrâhîm joined the Radio in 1968. He holds the position of reciter at the Sayyidah Zaynab mosque, a post held by his father before him. He acknowledges the influence of his father’s style on his own and says that his father was influenced by Shaykh Ahmad Nadâ, a reciter of the generation before Shaykh Rifcat. Shaykh Ibrâhîm is admired for his deep, rich voice, his renderings of qirâ’ât Warsh, his knowledge of pause and beginning, and the general dignity and gravity of his recitation.

Shaykh cAlî Hajjâj al-Suwaysî [b. 1926]. His father was chief elerk at the Islamic court in

Cairo . He studied Qur’ân with Shaykh Abu cAzîz al-Sahhâr, a prominent Azhari scholar and father of Shaykh Sacid al-Sahhar. Shaykh cAlî Hajjâj al-Suwaysî began reciting in public at an early age: he remembers reciting for a group of Yemenis at a conference when he was only seven or eight years of age. Shaykh cAlî joined the Radio in 1946-47 and entered the Music Institute to study ‘ud and music theory for four years when he saw the encouragement and success of his reciting. He used to sing a great deal, but now he just recites. He impresses one with how much he enjoys reciting. Shaykh cAlî is admired for his use of maqâm saba - his voice is considered especially suited to saba - and for his imitation of Shaykh Muhammad Rifcat.

Shaykh Muhammad Mahmûd al-Tablâwî [b. 1936 near

Cairo in Mît cUqba]. He studied the Qur’ân in the traditional school, the kuttâb, and was singled out for his voice and encouraged to become a professional reciter. He learned music by listening and cites Shaykh Mahmûd cAlî al-Bannâ, Shaykh al-Bahtîmî, and Shaykh Abû l-cAynayn al-Sacîsah as reciters he particularly admires. Shaykh al-Tablâwî was the first to record on cassette tape, and his recordings are widely distributed and extremely popular in , both in

Cairo and in the countryside. People attribute his popularity to his impressive breath control and the "freshness" of his voice. Shaykh Muhammad al-Tablâwî sueceeded Shaykh Mustafa Ismâ’îl as reciter at the al-Azhar mosque.

Scholars & Teachers

Shaykh cAbd al-Mutacâl Mansûr cArafah. Shaykh cAbd al-Mutacâl graduated from the

Institute of

Qirâ ‘ât in Subra, became a teacher there. He is presently assistant to the general director of the General Administration of Qur’ânic Affairs at al-Azhar. Shaykh cAbd al-Mutacâl presents a daily radio lesson on the rules of tajwîd, al-Rahmân cAllama l-Qur’ân, in conjunction with Shaykh Rizq Habbah. He also participated in preparing the most recent Azhari publication of the Qur’ânic text.

Shaykh cAmir al-Sacîd cUthmân. One of the prominent scholars and teachers in

Cairo , he has taught tajwîd and qirâ’ât to many of the leading professional reciters. An expert in these sciences, he teaches three of the public recitation classes with humor, asperity, patience, and an amazing command of the material. Shaykh cAmir also serves on a number of panels whceh evaluate reciters’ performances, such as the auditions for the Friday prayer reciters, the Intemational Recitation Competition in , and so forth. He holds the title and position of Wakeel (deputy) Shaykh al-Maqâri.

 

 

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Shaykh Abul Einein Sheisha

Sunday, April 23rd, 2006
Sheikh Abul-Einein She'isha

Sheikh Abul-Einein She’isha: In tune with Heaven

He reads with a sublimity born of love

Profile by Aziza Sami

"The Book was revealed in Mecca, printed in Istanbul and recited in Egypt" (Popular Egyptian saying)

Sheikh Abul-Einein She’isha sat upright on the dining room chair. A smile played across his lips, as he listened to the young boy sitting on the sofa in front of him recite the Qur’an. The sheikh gently censured the 12-year-old whenever he went slightly off-key. "You mustn’t let your mind wander back home to your friends that you play with. It’s not enough to have a beautiful voice. You must have a good ear and know how to listen."

Throughout their dialogue, the sheikh was always encouraging. He knows how to hide his inner disappointment. "A good voice, but no concentration," he commented later.

The session between the 83-year-old She’isha, Egypt’s leading Qur’anic reciter, and the young boy from the Governorate of Sharqiya, was part of an assignment which the sheikh has accepted to present two new young readers of the Qur’an to the president every year. The initiation takes place during the official celebrations of Mulid Al-Nabi (the Prophet Mohamed’s birthday) and Laylat Al-Qadr (the night when the first verse of the Holy Qur’an was revealed).

Despite his grand old age, the sheikh still wakes up every day with the first rays of dawn in order to read five parts ( ajzaa ) of the Qur’an. "You must never part company with the Holy Book, or else it will leave you," he explains.

This silent daily ritual acts as a spiritual catalyst, and enables him to maintain the level of artistic and professional excellence which has made him one of Egypt and the Islamic world’s greatest Qur’anic reciters.

She’isha was born in Biyala in the Governorate of Kafr Al-Sheikh. Unlike most Qur’anic reciters, he went to secular schools at both primary and secondary levels. None of his family members had a religious education, or even recited the Qur’an, though at that time recitation was a common trade in the countryside. "It just grew on me. I’d listen to the reciter at funerals, and stay until I fell asleep under his chair."

So the sheikh slowly learnt the Qur’an by listening to others. In particular, he listened to the great master Sheikh Mohamed Rifaat, who he got to know personally when he came to Cairo as a young man. "It is mainly through proper listening that one knows how the Qur’an should be read. It is not simply a matter of following rules which are laid down in books."

Today, as head of the Syndicate for Reciters of the Holy Qur’an, She’isha oversees the affairs of the 5,000 or so Qur’anic reciters who are syndicate members. Having succeeded in establishing a headquarters for the syndicate, "on a par with any of the major syndicates, like the doctors or engineers," his next aim is to raise the pensions currently received by retired reciters from a mere LE15 every month to LE100. "The People’s Assembly has asked for LE1 million to be allotted to the syndicate, but the government obviously has other priorities. I hope I will live a bit longer, in order to bring about an increase in pensions."

Sheikh She’isha received us in his modest apartment in Al-Sibaq Street in Heliopolis on a Thursday at noon. It is Ramadan. He courteously offered us something to drink, "in case anyone is not fasting".

Soon we heard the call for noon prayer coming from just round the corner where the Al-Khulafaa Al-Rashidin Mosque (the mosque of the Rightly Guided Caliphs) stands. The mosque is only a few metres from the house where She’isha lives, which he built himself in the 1960s. Every day he walks to Al- Khulafaa Al-Rashidin, where he is head of the board. The building has seen several extensions under She’isha’s auspices, and is now one of Heliopolis’ leading houses of prayer. An International Institute for Qur’anic Reciting, also founded by She’isha, stands in its grounds, attracting students from different parts of the Islamic world.

The sheikh does not recite there, however. He saves himself for Al-Sayida Zeinab Mosque, where he reads the "Sura of the Cave" each Friday. "The voice is still not bad," he smiles. And as he speaks, you can hear just the hint of a tremor in this voice which so affects its listeners when it lends its powers to rendering the Qur’an.

While we sat with him, the phone rang almost incessantly. There was no wireless hand-set within reach to make things easy for the sheikh. Each time, he would get up and walk over to the old- fashioned telephone which stood on a table in a vestibule outside the sitting room. Yet despite his age, he remains both physically and mentally agile, in no small part thanks to his adherence to "the sacred ritual" of walking for one hour every day round the Merryland Park not far from his house.

One caller was a reporter from the ruling National Democratic Party’s magazine Al-Liwaa Al-Islami. He asked if it was "wrong" for one of today’s popular young singers to recite the Qur’an.

The question appeared strange to the sheikh. For him, it was clearly a non- issue. "What if a singer recites the Qur’an?" he responded. "Wasn’t Sheikh Mohamed Rifaat the mentor of singers and composers like Umm Kulthum and Abdel-Wahab in the 1920s? Did not the great Sheikh Ali Mahmoud, who was Rifaat’s contemporary, sing with his own voice to Abdel-Wahab, showing him how to move from one maqam (scale) to another, or how to make a difficult transition from one part of the composition to the other?"

The furniture in the sheikh’s living room has mellowed with age. There are photographs everywhere — on the wall, on the sideboard next to the dining table, and on the small bookshelf in the corner of the room. One exquisitely printed black-and-white image shows an elegant and well-built young man with jet-black hair and moustache, dressed in suit and tie: it is the sheikh himself, captured on film in the 1950s. In another picture on the wall, he appears as a handsome youth proudly sporting the medal given to him by the king of Iraq in the late 1940s, Wisam Al-Rafidayn (the Medal of the Two Rivers).

Yet another image from the early 1960s taken at the seaside at Ras Al-Bar depicts She’isha, his eldest son Mohamed Hossam, and his wife — a pretty young woman with windswept hair. How did he meet her? "I married her because I loved her," he says, as if in this blunt statement lay the answer. Then he quickly adds: "She was from Cairo, not from a rural background like me."

The little boy in the photograph is now a grown man. "Mohamed teaches medicine in the United States," explains the sheikh. "He specialises in family medicine, which is an important concept, but one which has still not caught on here in Egypt."

He picks up a framed photograph of Mohamed and his American wife, taken during their wedding, and stands looking at it. He "can’t wait" for them to come with their two sons to visit him at Christmas, he tells us.

The sheikh’s younger son Mahmoud — an agricultural engineer who used to work for the Agricultural Credit Bank — never married. He chose to live with his father after his mother died seven years ago. "I was against this, because he should get married. But he would not change his mind."

His daughter Mona lives in a flat on the floor above him. He will often have his Iftar with her during Ramadan. Mona studied to be a simultaneous translator, but then chose to stay at home and raise her children. Only she, of all his children, has inherited her father’s beautiful voice. None of his offspring recite the Qur’an out loud, he says, "not even as a hobby. They’ve chosen to go on with their professional careers. And if they ever do recite," he adds with a wry smile, "they never do it in front of me."

To receive us, the sheikh is impeccably dressed in a quftan, the traditional garb of men of religion, made from good quality cloth. Still handsome, he cuts a dignified figure. His apartment, however, is extremely simple. Yet he refuses to take any credit for his austerity. "I’m too old really to go anywhere, to travel around the Arab countries or the Gulf and make a lot of money the way today’s reciters do." And of course he is too much a gentleman to mention that none of his "rivals" who are so much in demand can measure up to him in their art.

Today, the sheikh is the last survivor of the generation that grew up alongside the legendary Mohamed Rifaat. His name stands with those of legends such as Mohamed Al-Saifi, Abdel-Fattah Al- Shi’shaai, Khalil Al-Hosari, Mostafa Ismail, and Siddiq Al-Minshawi. The recitation of these great masters demonstrated the supreme beauty of the tradition of Qur’anic rendering, abundant with nuance and expressive melody, which had developed in Egypt. "You know the saying," the sheikh asks, "that the Qur’an was ‘revealed in Mecca, printed in Istanbul, and recited in Egypt’." Though he is quick to add his admiration for the reciting tradition of Iran.

It was She’isha who was solicited by the mufti of the late King Farouk to recite at the first-ever celebration of Ramadan in the royal palace. This event marked the beginning of his fame. In 1939, at the age of 17, he became the youngest-ever reciter to read the Qur’an on the Egyptian broadcasting service, four years after Sheikh Rifaat had started the tradition. More recently, She’isha undertook, in a purely voluntary capacity, to complete with his own voice the inaudible portions of a number of old recordings by Sheikh Rifaat. It was an arduous task, he remembers, "where recording one letter could take up to five hours."

She’isha was also selected to inaugurate the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Arabic service, and later, he would grace Egyptian television with live broadcasts of his Qur’anic reciting.

When he visited Iraq in the late 1940s to recite at the funeral of Queen Alia, the sheikh insisted on responding to a request from the prisoners at one of the country’s jails that he recite the Qur’an live in front of them. Despite his hosts’ protestations, and their fear for "his life", he went ahead. The experience, he says, was "life-changing" — just as it must have been for many of the prisoners.

For the sheikh, religion is "life itself. It is doing things with love and feeling for others. Sometimes when I see a child weeping," he confides, "I feel that I want to cry too."

This is a faith that may seem far- removed from the feverish obsession with boundaries, with ritualistic right and wrong, which characterises the religious rhetoric of today. But for the sheikh, Islam, along with every other religion, means tolerance, empathy in dealing with others, and a sense of humour with which he refuses to part.

Yet not everything is smooth sailing. Traditionally, Egyptian television has broadcast the sheikh’s sublime azan call for sunset prayer each day, and during Ramadan the call would be preceded by a Qur’anic recital. Yet this year, abruptly and without warning, these appearances were cancelled, only a few days before the Holy Month began, for no apparent reason.

The sheikh confides in us that the decision was not only hurtful, but he still does not fully understand why it was made.

Still, there is the Qur’an. When he recites the holy text, which he has recited countless times in the course of his long life, he still dwells upon the interpretation of the verses and seeks a deeper understanding of their meaning. "When you recite the word ’sky’, it must be on the right note, so as to bring the listener the sense of loftiness," he explains. "And when you recite the word ‘earth’, the tone must go down a bit and convey the expansiveness of the earth as it spreads out before you beneath the sky, as it says in the Holy Qur’an."

Once again, we heard the sound of azan al-’asr, the call to afternoon prayer at the Khulafaa Al-Rashidin Mosque, floating in through the window, as if from afar. "It is a question of feeling," says the sheikh, simply. "You must be moved by what you read, for others to be moved by you."

Taken from http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/715/profile.htm

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