Abdul Basit Was Proud of Being A Quran Reciter, Son Says
Speaking to El-Balad News, Tariq said whenever Abdul Basit was invited to recite the Quran in a mosque or a meeting, he would wear his best clothes and the best perfumes.
He liked to have an appearance that would elevate the status of a qari, the son said.
Tariq added that politeness, respect and kindness toward people are some of the things he learned from his father.
“My father traveled all over the world from the north to the south,” the son said, noting that Abdul baist was honored by leaders of many countries and wherever he went, he would be welcomed by people like a king.
Tariq also said his father recorded his recitation of the entire Quran in Saudi Arabia.
A large number of people and officials, including representative of Egypt’s president and ambassadors of Muslim countries attended his funeral, Tariq went on to say.
Abdul Basit Abdul Samad is known as one of the greatest Quran reciters in the world.
He was born in 1927 in the village of Al-Maza’iza, south of Egypt. His grandfather was a pious man, a Quran expert and a memorizer of the Quran.
At 10, Abdul Basit finished learning the entire Quran by heart in his village. He also learned 7 styles of Quran recitation by the age of 12 and the 10 styles by 14.
He started reciting the Quran in mosques and religious centers and soon became very popular.
In 1951, at the age of 19, he went to the capital Cairo for the first time and recited verses from the Quran at Magham Zeynab. Famous Quranic figures and reciters like Abdul Fattah Sha’shaie, Mustafa Esmaeel, Abdul-Azim Zaher, and Abolainain Shoaisha were present at the event. His performance was so outstanding that the crowd requested him to recite for longer than his allotted 10 minutes by his audience, and he continued to recite for over an hour and a half; his listeners were captured by his mastery of pitch, tone and the rules of Tajweed.
In the same year, he started reciting the Quran in Egypt’s national radio.
Abdul Basit travelled to many countries around the world for reciting the Quran. Once in Jakarta, Indonesia, over 250,000 people gathered in a mosque and streets around it to listen to his recitation.
In 1952 he made the Hajj pilgrimage and recited the Quran in the Masjid-al-Haram in Makkah and Masjid-un-Nabi in Medina.
Listening to his inspiring recitations of the Quran, many non-Muslims are said to have embraced Islam, including 6 in Los Angeles and 164 in Uganda.
Master Abdul Basit Abdul Samad died of diabetes and liver disease in November 1988.
