RAMADAN Parents use technology for holiday

Muslims strive to listen to and read the Koran more often during this time.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Fazila Ahmed of Southlake, Texas, has to make daily decisions about what to play on her car stereo during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan -- Disney tunes, or verses from the Koran.
Her sons Ammar, 5, and Sameer, 2, clamor for "It's a Small World," though recently they've also been asking for the serene words of the Koran, said Ahmed, 40.
It is Ramadan, a month of daylight fasting and prayer, and with it comes nightly a cappella chantings of the Koran. At local mosques, men known as "qaris" recite the more than 77,000 words of the Koran over the course of the 29 or 30 days of Ramadan.
Many on-the-go Islamic parents such as Ahmed are turning to technology to keep Ramadan in focus. Though some Muslim immigrants are wary of the West's permissive culture, many embrace the growing number of recitations of the Koran on compact discs and computer software, and they watch prayers in the holy city of Mecca on satellite television.
Muslims strive to listen to and read the Koran more often during the holiday. The best way for Ahmed to hear the verses is on CD. She's usually too busy to attend the mosque more than once a week, though men are obligated to go if they can.
"I turn on CDs that I have, the recitations from the Koran. That's what most people tend to do," she said.
Many Muslims own several recordings of the Koran, and some of the "qaris" chant so beautifully that they attain fame. For instance, Dar-us-Salam Publications, a Houston-based company, sells the "qaris'" greatest hits on CD. The four-volume series features excerpts of famous "qaris" from Egypt, Pakistan and elsewhere.
But even in the digital age, live recitations remain firmly in demand.
Chanting the Koran
The tradition of reciting the Koran stretches back to the founding of the religion about 1,390 years ago when, Muslims believe, God revealed its text to the prophet Muhammad over 23 years. Ramadan is the month set aside to glorify God and to practice piety, charity and good manners.
"The recitation of the Koran is so much built into the daily rhythm of life," said Sayyid M. Syeed, secretary-general of the Islamic Society of North America based in Indianapolis. Because Muhammad memorized the text, Muslims try do the same, he said.
And although not everyone commits the entire text to memory, nearly every Muslim memorizes at least a few chapters, he said.
Tradition
For the past dozen years, Riaz Hussain, 34, has recited the Koran -- from memory -- at a mosque in Carrollton, Texas, during Ramadan. Along with running two businesses, praying and abstaining from food and water from sunrise to sunset, Hussain also studies the passages of the Koran that he recites every evening of Ramadan. "Qaris" chant the text in exact order -- including the pauses that allow the congregation to pray, kneel and prostrate themselves toward Mecca.
"Of course it's a big job, a very big responsibility," Hussain said Sunday, sitting with friends at the Islamic Center of the Mid Cities.
Colleyville surgeon Asif Husain, sitting nearby, said a "qari" can't miss a word during his readings.
"There are three people standing behind him" who know the Koran by heart, said Husain, 57. "If he makes a mistake, they correct him."
Despite the emphasis on listening to the Koran in the original Arabic, many Muslims don't know the language.
Husain, the Colleyville, Texas, surgeon, has three recordings of the Koran, all in Arabic, performed by a Turk, Pakistani and Egyptian.
"I don't understand Arabic," said Husain, who follows the recitation with an English translation.
"The Koran cannot be translated. To get the flavor of the Koran, the real thing, you have to know the Arabic language."
Ahmed, who is from South Africa, also doesn't understand Arabic. But the "qaris'" voices, and the knowledge that hearing the original Arabic brings blessings, keeps her listening.
"If it's a really good voice, it's like a melody and you want to keep listening," she said.