How A Canadian Pilot Embraced Islam after Listening to Muhammad Rifat’s Recitation
Muhammad Rifat was born on May 9, 1882, in Cairo. He was only two years old when he lost his sight due to inflammation and infection, and his life changed from the very beginning.
Muhammad was interested in reciting the Quran as a child. This was something that happened in his family, and Muhammad followed the path of his family, especially his father, in learning the Quran.
In 1934, Radio Egypt was established and he was invited to recite the Quran as the first reciter in this Media, so Surah “Al-Fath” was recited for the first time by Sheikh Muhammad Rifat on Egyptian radio on December 29, 1934.
Other world radios, including Radio Berlin, London, and Paris, were beginning their Arabic programs with the recitation of Sheikh Muhammad Rifat during World War II.
A Canadian pilot who was serving in the Western Sahara with British forces during the war once heard a recitation by Sheikh Rifat broadcast on the Radio London. His voice affected the pilot so much that he asked his friends to give him a copy of the Quran to read.
He later studied about Islam and Muslims and then went to Cairo to find Sheikh Rifat and embrace Islam in his presence.
While Sheikh Rifat’s recitation were broadcast on various radio stations, they were not recorded at the time and, therefore, few recorded recitations have remained from him.
Shortness of breath was a disease and a problem that Sheikh Rifat suffered from in the last years of his life, and it caused him to have difficulty reciting.
In 1943, shortness of breath while reciting in a mosque in Egypt was a bitter incident that made the audience cry because he tried to continue his recitation but he could not and he came down from the stand sadly and all the people cried when they saw this scene.
After that, he was no longer able to recite the Quran.
Muhammad Rifat passed away on Monday, May 9, 1950, at the age of 68.
Here is his recitation of Surah Al-Fajr:
