C3: The Qur'an as Written Word

Hi All-
I've been away camping the past four days, but I was able to read and make some notes on the next chapter. This chapter explores the "organic relationship between the Qur'an as both a written an oral text" (56).

Esack writes: "comprehension can follow from the emotive and intuitive response that is evoked in the hearer and reciter rather than from a study of its contents" (56). Is this why young Muslims learning to recite the Qur'an can just focus on the recitation without knowing the contents of the passages they recite? Can the understanding of God come through emotion and intuition? Is this how humans experience God? Is this how the Qur'an, by some, transcends time and culture?

Is it a similar idea to say that one can read the Bible, for example, and understand the message even though that person exists well outside the time and culture of the Bible? I mean it is a common idea that the word of God speaks to people in just the way they need to hear and that all can understand the word of God.

Regarding the Youtube link of the young boy reciting...

Ayoub is quoted in Esak as stating: "a good reciter often has the power to carry his listeners into moods of excitement or . . . bliss", but I ask what has this to do with the message of the Qur'an? (70). Someone months back sent me this link of the young boy reciting the Qur'an, and I had no idea what sura he was reciting until last week, and yet, I have returned periodically and listened to this recitation, because I find the sound, the movement of the notes, the purity and facility of the voice transfixing. I 'm sensitive to music and lyrical voice maybe...but what has this to do with the message of the Qur'an? I ask, because I get the sense thay Esack is suggesting it indeed does have something to do with the way the Qur'an reaches human beings. As the actual word of God --the experience of hearing recitation is an experience with the divine...

Does anyone have any insights?

Also, and it's a related question--what background or understanding, or predisposition is necessary to understand or relate to the Qur'an? rosinbow

Maybe some connection with the concept of a mantra? That what you are saying doesn't actually matter, but the mere act of reciting without having to think about it helps you to be aware of and open yourself to the divine?