the servant as he recites the Quran to the servant himself, there is much that would take too long to recount. This is also expressed in prophetic hadiths, such as the Prophet’s saying (may Allah bless him and grant him peace):

“Beautify the Quran with your voices.”

And his saying:

“Allah listens more attentively to a man reciting the Quran with a beautiful voice than the owner of a singing girl listens to her.”

Al-Khallāl related in his Book of the Quran that Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm said: “One day Abū ‘Abd Allāh said to me—I had asked him about this—‘Do you know what is meant by “whoever does not recite the Quran melodiously”?’ I replied, ‘No.’ He said, ‘It means a man raising his voice. That is its meaning: when he raises his voice, he has recited it melodiously.’”

He also related that Mansūr ibn Sālih asked his father, “May a man raise his voice when reciting the Quran at night?” He replied, “Yes, he may raise it if he wishes.” Then he mentioned the hadith of Umm Hāni’: “I used to hear the Prophet’s recitation (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) at night while I was on a bed.”

He also related that Sālih ibn Ahmad quoted to his father, “Beautify the Quran with your voices.” His father replied, “‘Beautifying’ means making it beautiful.”

Al-Fadl ibn Ziyād said: “I heard Abū ‘Abd Allāh being asked about recitation. He replied, ‘He should beautify it with his voice, without affectation.’”

Abū Bakr al-Athram said: “I asked Abū ‘Abd Allāh about reciting to melodies. He replied, ‘I dislike anything newly introduced, unless it is simply a man’s own voice, without affectation.’”

Judge Abū Ya‘lā said in his handwritten annotations on al-Khallāl’s Compendium: “His words indicate that the reciter’s voice is not the eternal voice, because he attributed it to the reciter as his natural voice, without his having learned melodies.”