people—especially women and perceptive children—were flocking to him and were deeply moved by his recitation. Some European scholars have likewise recognized the tremendous impact that the Messenger of Allah’s recitation of the Quran had in drawing the Arabs to Islam, conceding that it was more powerful in guiding people than all the miracles of the earlier prophets combined.” End of citation. The Hafiz (Ibn Ḥajar) then added: “The early generations differed over the permissibility of reciting with alḥān (melodic tunes). As for beautifying the voice itself, and giving precedence to the one whose voice is pleasant, there is no disagreement about that.” He next reviewed the jurists’ statements on melodic recitation, reporting its permissibility from a number of Companions and Successors; it is the explicit position of al-Shafi‘i and is also transmitted by al-Ṭaḥāwī from the Ḥanafīs. He continued: “This dispute applies only when none of the letters are displaced from their proper articulation points. If any letter is altered,” al-Nawawī states in al-Tibyān, “there is unanimous agreement that such recitation is forbidden.” Ibn al-Qayyim, in Zād (1/191–195), records the views of both sides—the permissive and the prohibitive—then concludes: “The decisive clarification is that taṭrīb and taghanni (melodious chanting and song-like intonation) are of two kinds: 1. The first is that which springs naturally from a person without affectation, practice, or formal training; when he is left to his innate disposition and allows it to flow, it produces that melodious modulation. This is permissible, even if he adds extra embellishment and beautification, as Abu Mūsā said to the Prophet: ‘Had I known you were listening, I would have embellished it still further for you.’ A grieving person, or one stirred by joy, love, or longing, cannot keep himself from infusing sorrow or melody into his recitation; yet souls accept and delight in it because it accords with nature and involves no pretension…"