ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of meaning within the recited Qurʾān as a case. It focuses on two recordings of Sūrat al-Furqān as recited by Sheikh Mishari Rashid Alafasy. Sheikh Alafasy is an imam of the Grand Mosque in Kuwait City and an extremely popular reciter of the Qurʾān today. Sūrat al-Furqān is considered to be the forty-second sura revealed according to the Egyptian chronology, whereas Nöldeke"s chronology places it slightly later, fifty-fifth, in the middle Meccan period. The practice of recitation forms the foundation of Islamic education worldwide, making the sound and experience of reciting the first point of contact with the sacred text for most believers. The works of William Graham and Frederick Denny have opened many potential avenues for new scholarship on the recited Qurʾān. On the macro level, in terms of structure, Alafasy's recitation in recording A does mark moments that are significant in the text in terms of its meanings and its rhyme pattern.
