The Concept of “Recitation Engineering” in Thoughts of Ayatollah Khamenei

Recitation Engineering is a keyword used by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei in a meeting with Quran reciters on the first days of the holy month of Ramadan on March 23, 2023. The Leader advised the reciters to use this technique in their recitations. This article seeks to expound upon the concept of Recitation Engineering with emphasis on the Leader’s viewpoint. This research, employing the thematic analysis method, has closely studied all the Leader’s speeches and comments on this topic in nearly 70 Quranic circles held from 1989 until 2022 and categorizes the related content. The result shows that, from the viewpoint of Ayatollah Khamenei, Quran recitation has two inner and outer etiquette. The inner etiquette includes a previous self-impression of a reciter from the content and the outer etiquette addresses waqf and Ibtida (to stop and start) , stressing on certain words and repeating them, and following rules of Sawt and Lahn. These could finally make people further contemplate the Quran, help listeners hear the correct meanings and bring about spiritual, intellectual and practical growth for both the individual and society. It seems that the Leader, by using the term recitation engineering, is meant to refer to the outer etiquette of reciting which will be elucidated in this work.