and with regard to the Prophet’s words, “yutaghanna bi-l-Quran” (to chant or sing the Quran), the scholars have disagreed about the exact sense of the verb taghanni, giving five different explanations that al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar lists in Fath al-Bari. The correct view, as al-Nawawi states in his Commentary on Sahih Muslim, is that it means “to beautify one’s voice.” He writes: “This is the position adopted by the majority of scholars in the various schools and disciplines.” The same meaning is supported by the phrase “yajharu bihi” (“he recites it aloud”) and by the wording “hasan al-tarannum” (“pleasant intonation”), for, as al-Tabari explains, tarannum occurs only when the reciter improves his voice and makes it melodious. Hence Ibn Hajar concludes: “The outward sense of the reports favors the interpretation that what is intended is beautifying the voice.” He further remarks: “There is no doubt that souls are more disposed to listen to a melodious recitation than to one devoid of melody, for tunefulness softens the heart and brings tears to the eyes.” Ibn al-Qayyim (1/193) comments: “This [beautifying the voice] is an aid to the very goal. It is like the sweetness added to medicine so that it will reach the place of the illness; like the spices and fragrance put into food so that human nature will be more receptive to it; and like the perfume, adornment, and beautification with which a woman approaches her husband so that the purposes of marriage may be achieved.” Sayyid Rashid Rida states: “We have often seen some Christian men of letters eager to hear the Quran from skilled reciters, and they acknowledge its powerful influence on the heart. It is reported in the Sahih that the idol-worshippers used to harm Abu Bakr and prevent him from praying in the Sacred Mosque; later they even tried to stop him from raising his voice with the Quran in his own house when they saw how people—especially women and discerning children—were flocking to him and how his recitation affected them. Some European scholars have come to realize the tremendous impact that the Messenger of Allah’s recitation of the Quran had in drawing the Arabs to Islam, admitting that it was more persuasive in guiding people than all the miracles of the earlier prophets combined.” End of citation. Then the Hafiz said: __________ I subsequently noticed that Shaykh Shuayb al-Arnaut—who, together with our brother Abd al-Qadir, produced the critique that has been refuted above by an investigation scarcely found elsewhere—ignored this entire discussion and drew no benefit from it in his notes on al-Baghawi’s Sharh al-Sunnah (4/485). There he endorsed al-Baghawi’s authentication of Abu Hurayra’s defective hadith, despite the testimony of the aforementioned master scholars to its flaw! [Adapted, with slight abridgment, from the printed edition of al-Sifah, pp. 125–127].