"Those who are able to communicate the states they receive whenever they recite.. That's how much they loved the Qur'an.

That's how much they bonded to it - To love something and to make others love that which you love!"

- A.A.I.M.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ukashah..

Should I tell you mummy's greatest secret..."

...

"Mother has a world of her own.., a place where she can go, whenever life becomes too difficult and unbearable.

A world of multiple realms, filled with stories that come alive..."

...

"How do you get there, Ummi~"

...

"Recite, Ukashah! Recite!"

...

"Ukashah?"

...

The boy folded his arms, still sulking.

Thus, he didn't see when she reached out for him, and carried him lightly as if he were a feather.

Her laughter, light like the summer breeze, she locked her forehead with his in a fierce rub that lightened his heart, and filled it consequently with laughter and glee.

Both mother and son, were in merry. It was a moment in time here, but it seemed like an eternity to them..

He recited the Quran to her.

She listened.

Her eyes.. lost in a reverie. She seemed to have escaped this world, finding refuge in Allah, in the myriad realms.. echoes reverberating from the Divine Furqân.

•••

Before Ukashah was a majestic ocean, calming inviting him. Water with the surface of reflecting glass, strangely unrippled by the wind..

Within it, were glowing formless bodies. Sometimes, they appeared to him as letters.

Once in a while, the letters joined to build words. Then they constructed phrases. Composing meanings, they transformed the world around him!

It was like the phrases harboured a power to bring worlds into his sight. He saw a myriad of them, all stories his mother had told him.

A wave rose, manifesting an upturned world. The tribes of Lūt, alayhis Salaam..

With its projection from the water surface, came a voice he heard.. a voice calling from a distance, as though from across time..

The voice seemed to have been loud when it first was made.

However, it could only reach him as a soft echo, an almost inaudible shout,..remnants of what it had once been.

Yh.. That was what called him here.. A call from an ancient river, like time flowing into an ocean, where all souls of past and present meet.

A call from ancients, - lording it over all.

The ocean shimmered and brought with it a haze of cerulean blue.

To understand this world, - the depth of its nature, he had to dive inside..

Inasmuch as that represented the danger of sinking, he was wholly enticed.

Like every time he had arrived here, he couldn't swim..

Zayn had always told him of this place, about how he felt, whenever he read the Qur'an..

Yet every time he arrived here, the fear of drowning frightened Ukashah.

Moreover, ..he feared the cold..

But if he could become one with the ocean, and never have to leave again.. then, that too would be satisfying for him.

Zayn laughed,"..Whether drowning or sailing, every soul who arrived here, always found a saving grace..

For even those who drowned had found pearls on the ocean ground.

Whether lost or guided,
Each reached an illuminated shore in the end.

For even the lost, had discovered new islands yet to be mapped on the Earth..

Always, awaiting the brave who dare to venture far enough."

Those last words of Zayn rang through him, and like a gentle push, he fell inside.

Strangely enough, wading through the darkly mysterious waters, he didn't drown..

Strangely enough, it was warm.. like the garden in the royal courtyard of his father's palace..

As time went on, he dived deeper, into the ocean, layers upon layers..seeking the depths, soaking in the calmness of the world around him.

Zayn.. He thought he could see the boy smiling, just like when they had first asked him to show them how to recite as profoundly as he did.

So this is it, eh?..

They had subsequently been able to recite like that. But Ukashah had the feeling that, - he had not yet experienced the same joy Zayn had, whenever he recited the Qur'an..

Because, he had always stood in the chaos of the world.. unable to escape.. Unable to reach the haven he saw, through the torn world..

He had never fully lost himself in the Qur'an, to the point where he had forgotten the world about him..

Ukashah sank deeper.

The deeper he sank, the more serene he felt, the more tranquil the heart became..

His concentration in here deepened, and his senses sharpened.

The voices outside seemed to fade, gradually in the distance, ..relieving him of his chains, ..of the pain and the sorrow. Ones, he had so skilfully hid, behind a mask of indifference to the world and the people around him.

Ukashah felt his limbs shudder with ecstasy as he touched the ocean floor.

"This level of Tadabbūr.."Âyatullah murmured in amazement,"It's surpassed Zeeshan and Inaayat..even his companion with the Seven paths.."

..

Through the mayhem of voices, like a gentle wave, and over the cacophony, it steadily rose.

High and low, advance and retreat, waxing and waning like the celestial moon. It kept leaping through the crowds, treading and weaving the scattered attention, until it had all focus gravitating unto it, leaving the people no time to acknowledge their so sudden bewilderment.

Qul sīruu fil-ardi
fanthurūkayfa badaa alkhalqa
thummallahu yûnshi-unnash-atal-akhirah..

(Say, [O Muhammad], "Travel through the land and observe how He began creation. Then Allah will produce the final creation.)

InnAllaha 'alaa kulli shay-inqadeer...
(Indeed Allah, over all things, is competent.")

Highly polished, elegant and eloquent. The scholars listened, realizing firsthand, the level of perfection to which Ukashah had applied the laws of Tajwîd.

It was obvious he wasn't only a skilled patron of his art, but Ukashah's experience spanned volumes of constant practice and recitation.

Articulations were perfect, constructions and conjugations couldn't be well more expressed, nasalization was effectively exercised, the humming and the long pauses..

Where he stretched the words, the hearts tensed with him. And where he simply elocuted them, the souls shivered in cognizance.

He opened the hearts, tuning the heartstrings into mediums upon which the tides rode, rising and falling, waxing and waning as he progressed in a slow but calm pace.

It was a one hundred percent Tajwîd, to say the least..

For a moment, it seemed like an otherworldly existence had appeared in their midst, in divulgence of a Divine decree that made their hearts to quiver in awe, like the angels who heard the divine decrees.

But then when the fine stream of euphonious phrases stopped, abruptly as it had first began, the people looked to the centre of the convention where the voice had seemed to originate from.

In the middle was the boy who previously held the expressionless face, and later had tears streaming down his cheeks.

He seemed to have disappeared from their vision when the voice had first sounded and left them dazed.

However, now that they looked at him, it seemed he was the source of the ethereal recitation.

His eyes had a drawing effect as they steadily became unfocused, as though he was losing himself to another world.

It was a brief pause.

All hearts stopped for a split second.

And in that split second, they saw Ukashah radiate a golden and dignified air of unrippled calmness, unparalleled.

His sombre face still held that look of sobriety. But there was a glow to his chestnut orbs, which emblazoned with life.

Even as his lips upturned faintly, cracking a smile, a wave of happiness and pleasantness seemed to overflow from him in a tempest of unconfined emotions. His consciousness had long since fled him, failing to capture the world around him.

That same tempest overwhelmed them all, in its release.

If they had first seen him as unemotional and an inexpressive person, then at the moment, the aura radiating from his countenance, attracted them all.

It was the joy of an impassioned heart. One, which finally found its yearn, or, finally having arrived in proximity with its object of obsession, it couldn't afford to contain itself!

Ukashah had resumed in his slow steady pace, the voice was deep and smooth, but had gained more depth and profundity like a fathomless ocean. Words fled their minds, in their attempt to express the wonder and sensation that continued to etch itself within, with every passing moment.

..

As the Qaadi observed Ukashah complete one verse after the other, his awe of the boy increased! Just by reciting the first verse, the young Qaari had already gauged his level beyond where the normal rules could be applied to him.

He even forgot the fact that Ukashah had correctly continued the verse of the Mutashābihāt without any problem.

Crystal clear, his recitation expressed the letters distinctly, in their every right, and what was due them.

Yu'aththibu man yashā'u wayarhamuman yashā
(He punishes whom He wills and has mercy upon whom He wills,

wa-ilayhi tuqlaboon
(and to Him you will be returned.)

His elocution of the string of letters appeared in full harmony within a delicate quiet setting, as though it echoed from beyond the undulating expanse of a sea.

Wamaa añtum bimu'jizeena fil-ardiwalaa fissamaa'
(And you will not cause failure [to Allah ] upon the earth or in the heaven.

wamaa lakum mindūnillahi miñ waliyyin wala naseer
(And you have not other than Allah any protector or any helper.)

Ukashah's recitation was amazingly slow in rhythm and expression, portraying silently flowing rivers and unfathomable oceans, calm lakes, reflecting full moon night.

It were as if he wouldn't leave a word without expressing all there was to express of its rules of recitation. It didn't focus of speed, but on clarity.

The vastness of the sky was its course and the boundless universe, its destination!

"The lover and the ocean..

Eternal moonlight..(laughs ecstatically)

Between Allah and us, who truly, is the Lover, and who truly, is Beloved?!.."

That was one of the rare times they saw Zayn laugh so.

Abdul Baqi and Zak stared at each other in a daze, remembering something Zayn had said, about reciting in the domains.

Up until now, Ukashah had never recited this way, - the type Zayn had guided them to, on that day. The type, he had used.

Qur'an was the speech of the Lover to His beloved..

When reading the letter of the beloved, one reads with ecstatic passion.

When listening to the words of love from the lover, not a heart but is moved!

Ukashah was combining his form with Zayn's recitation that radiated rhapsodies, and greatly influenced all people.

He's probably already reached the ocean floor.. Abdul Bâqi's eyes glinted in wonder and rivalry.

If it was like that recital, then as the momentum advances, the effects of his recitation would only soar higher, - to parallel that of Zayn's!!

..

"He's already reached where Zak, and the five of the previous generation had reached, ..just before they opened the domains!.."Âyatullah commented. His whole concentration was focused on the recitation of the young reciter.

He was unaware of the fact that he was openly commenting his thoughts out to those around him.

"If that's what you say, then in the Domains realm, Ukashah has secured the full 50 parts mark of Tajwîd already..

It thus remains the assessment of the next 50 grades of tarteela(hymnody); 20 parts Tarannum, 10 parts Tahazzun, 10 parts Khashyah, and the last 10 for Tadabbūr.

But how come, unlike Zak, I can sense no contemplation within, only the pleasant lull of his voice and his on-point elocution??"King Dhul Qarnayn asked.

"Wait for it.. That's how Ukashah's reading begins.. Lost at sea, carried by waves, then it changes.. once he reaches the shores.."

Sāmuddin spoke, forgetting that he was speaking to the King himself. But since they were all drawn in by the reciter, they temporarily forgot their positions and who they were.

By this time, they all could probably think of nothing but concentrate on the appreciation of his recital.

"Which shores?"The King asked, intrigued by the scholar's submission.

"Where the story begins!"

Âyatullah chuckled internally. Ukashah's contemplation was ever present since he started, and ran deeper than anyone who had before, entered the domains.

Obviously, the only reason why both couldn't yet sense it, was due to their low keenness in recognizing Tadabbūr in others, even a commoner could tell from the way Ukashah seemed absent, that he was in another realm of mind.

Ukashah was already delving deeper into the depths.

Soon, it would explode outwards, drawing everyone in!

With each new verse, Ukashah's timbre only rose to another level. The pitch of his voice hadn't changed, - only advanced, gathering a powerful momentum with his each new high.

He was clearly reciting at his best, going all out - with all his heart.

Âyatullah furrowed his brows. The recitation in perfect tarteela possessed, undoubtedly all the rules and beyond. Ukashah proved that, he deeply knew the ins and outs of his art.

But he couldn't help the feeling that there was something coming up..

"Ukashah recites as if he's putting all his heart out, you should be proud, Âyah!"King Dhul Qarnayn smiled toward Âyatullah slightly. He couldn't say he wasn't moved.

"Before, you said his companion surpassed Zeeshan in the realms of Domain by 80 to 76 percent, but between he and his companion, who do you think, - has the greater profundity in the domains?

I hope you answer us without bias."King Dhul Qarnayn mocked,"You're a renowned Qaadi and traveller after all."

Turning to look at Ukashah,"I seem rather interested in this thing about the Domains too."

Âyatullah smiled, perfunctorily,"In terms of Tarannum(Melody), Zak's position hasn't been displaced.. yet.

I've never heard an exceptionally gifted voice like that of the blond boy. In the past generation, Zeeshan and Inaayat topped in Tarannum. But their mark was only 10 out of the 20.

Zak arrived today and took us to a whole new realm of tarannum, securing a great 18 out of the 20 marks.

If I'm to grade Ukashah's tarannum level, it'll probably be as close to Zak as 16 or 17.. However, till he completes his recitation, nothing is certain.."

Of course he knew this more than most others.

For as Ukashah continued to read, the overwhelmingly grand Tadabbūr level of his recitation only progressively increased..

Then he remembered the appraisal of Zak's recital as compared to Zeeshan, one he had already pointed out to his companions.

*****

Zeeshan
Tajwîd - 50parts(100% in normal recitation)

Tarannum - 10parts

Tahazzun - 7parts

Tadabbūr - 1part

Khashyah - 8parts(highest so far till now)

Total was 76% profundity of recitation!

..

Zak
Tajwîd - 50parts(100% in normal recitation)

Tarannum - 18parts

Tahazzun - 4parts

Tadabbūr - 1part

Khashyah - 7parts

Total was 80% profundity of recitation!

*****
Under normal circumstances, Zak wouldn't have passed Zeeshan except for his exceptionally gifted voice.

However, this was the thing about the recitals, - a pleasant voice but devoid of sorrow or contemplation, was more likely to affect listeners than an unpleasant voice but thick with contemplation and emotion.

But, when one is able to combine all, he automatically reaches where others can but look in admiration and envy.

Also, Zak's Khashyah level was only one mark below Zeeshan's..

But Ukashah, Ukashah..

Just where was he going to.. He had already surpassed his master Inaayat!!

"Once the domains open for contemplation to rise, the categories of Tahazzun, Tarunnum, Khashyah, and Tadabbur can be rated. Then his level in domain can be assessed, together with his bond of contemplation with the Qur'an!!

Please, stay silent and listen.."

..Where are you taking us?.

•••

Then it happened as sudden as a thunderclap!

Not a soul, but was stirred.

Not a heart, but was awed.

Minds were confounded to great perplexity, leaving the people speechless.

Different people claimed to have experienced it in different ways. It couldn't be ascertained or disproved either, but one thing was common..

Chilling shivers ran down the spine of everyone present in the convention that day..

People looked down upon their hands and entire body, in search of what had roused them so, just to tremble at the very sight of their own skins.

The goosebumps left them in wonder..

Their hairs were raised so chillingly upright, as though it were the winter or cold season. But with eyes softening in tears, it was obvious this was no effect of cold.

It was the heart.

_________________________________

Disclaimer!!!

The concept of recitation into domains is fictional. In this story, the appearance of the waves and sea is not physical. It is just the feeling the people get when they hear the voice of the reciter.

Apparently, Ukashah's voice has the calming effect water has, and the more he uses it, the more people feel like they're 'sinking' into an ocean(without drowning, but becoming more drawn into his recitation).

Then the appearance of the worlds(in next chapter) is something only those who understand the passages of the Qur'an experience. Their understanding, knowing that he's reading about stories of past people intrigues them, because Ukashah reads so you'll feel as if the stories were happening right in front of you, more like a storyteller narrating his story in such a fascinating way that the audience can't help but be drawn inside, as if they could see what he's describing vividly.

However, the Tajwîd is definitely real, and the people feeling goosebumps, shivering, tears, are all also things that happen in real life.

Sometimes, the person listening is not even pious themselves, however the way the reciter reads the Qur'an, with much fear of Allah, inspires the consequent awe-inspiring feeling in his listener.

The Four Criteria of Domain Assessment

Tajweed, which is the first, has an upper limit mark of 50. This represents the 100% Tajweed in the level before domain.
Thus, everyone in the domains has a least Tajweed mark of 50.

Tarannum, melody, this is more of a natural gift. Only those graced by Rabbul 'Izzah with a talent of a beautiful sawt may attain the heights. It's uppermost mark is 20.

Tahazzun, sorrow; this measures the innocence and softness of one's qalb. One who's heart is not soft first of all, cannot advance here.
The words of Allah work upon the softest hearts..
It's highest mark is 10.

Khashyah, the awe of Allah's greatness, tends to measure the level of Ikhlâs. One who stands in awe of his Rabb, can think of none else but to please Him.

Among the past five reciters, the one with the most effective recital had a Khashyah level measuring 8! The uppermost limit is 10!

The last of all these, is Tadabbur - Contemplation. Only with a high spiritual level of focus and raghbah(the fervent love and desire to reach that which is beloved) can one soar in Tadabbur. Among all five criteria, it has been where most reciters slumped. Up to now, the reason has remained a mystery.

Apparently, even tahazzun and khashyah both have little influence on it, so even in the older generation of five reciters, the highest in Tadabbur was 3, but that was not Zeeshan who topped in Khashyah..

His awe of the verses probably confounded him, rendering his contemplation void:)