Following is recitation of a verse about the holy month by late Egyptian qari Sheikh Mustafa Ismail.

He recites verse 185 of Surah Al-Baqarah:
“The month of Ramadan is the month in which the Quran was revealed; a guide for the people, the most authoritative of all guidance and a criteria to discern right from wrong. Anyone of you who knows that the month of Ramadan has begun, he must start to fast. Those who are sick or on a journey have to fast the same number of days at another time. God does not impose any hardship upon you. He wants you to have comfort so that you may complete the fast, glorify God for His having given you guidance, and that, perhaps, you would give Him thanks.”

Mustafa Ismail was born in June 1905 in a village called Mit Gazal near the city of Tanta in Egypt’s Gharbia Governorate.

His parents named him Mustafa Muhammad Mursi Ismail. His father, who was a farmer, sent him to a Quran school headed by Sheikh Abdul Rahman Abulainain to memorize the Quran.

Mustafa Ismail managed to learn the entire Quran by heart at the age of 10.

He then started learning Quran recitation and Tajweed principles with Sheikh Idris Fakhir.

He first recited the Quran before a crowd at the age of 14. Those who heard his recitation at the Atif Mosque in Tanta were amazed by his beautiful performance and encouraged him to continue on the path of Quran recitation.

He did so by going to Cairo and learning more in the field from prominent Qari Sheikh Muhammad Rafa’at.

Soon he became a well-known Qari all over Egypt and travelled to many other countries, including Iraq, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Germany, Palestine, Britain and France to recite the Quran.

He also received many medals of honor in his own country and elsewhere.

They included two given to him by Egypt’s presidents, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Hosni Mubarak.

Another president, Anwar Sadat was also fond of the eminent qari’s recitations and imitated him in his own recitation.

Sheikh Mustafa Ismail died on December 26, 1978 and was buried in his home.

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