 How do we begin to recite the Quran professionally? Oftentimes many people come up to me for their kids especially on how they can recite the Quran in front of the audience, in front of people and to take the Quran seriously in that manner. The advice I give them is to listen to the Quran a lot and I mean so much that it becomes something which you eat, breathe, sleep, it consumes your life. The reason I say this is because the more you listen to it the more your ears get trained and it's best to learn this through listening because it builds this memory within ourselves where when we begin to start reciting the Quran we can trace back and reference all the recitations we've listened. For example when you listen to the Quran you should take the time to understand what the verses are being recited, how they're being recited and the way I recommend this is by listening and opening the Quran to the page which the reciter is reciting and to spend time to see how each line, each word is recited. Now the other thing which is important is to understand our own limitations and abilities as a reciter and the best way we can do this is literally by practicing a recitation. Now for example I always recommend there's many top reciters in the recitation world which you can listen to. For example, Minshawi, Mustafa Asmaeel, Abdul Basit, Khalil Hussary. These reciters are the dons of the recitation world or the standards which many go by and the best way you can do this is by listening to one of these recitations and spending time to see and analyzing this. How do we do this? Well there's many things. For example when it comes to Tajweed we take the time to understand how they're reciting, how each emphasis that they put on each word, each line, voice. What's happening with their voice when they're reciting? When do they go up high? When do they go low? When recording all these instances and literally opening up a book and writing down, okay why are they going up at this moment in the recitation? Another thing is the melody. This is a big thing of course. The biggest I will always emphasize is Tajweed because nothing is more important than the recitation Quran properly with clarity and pronunciation and following the Tajweed rules but of course voice, sound and melody is important because this helps and enhances the recitation. Now as I was saying you spend time you open up a book from this moment to this moment he's reciting this melody okay maybe five minutes in he changes it into something else and you build this understanding of the more you listen the more you understand why how these melodies are changing. Now the best way to imitate recitation you may find a recitation that's 40 minutes long and you wonder okay how do I exactly imitate this. The best way to do this is you spend you break the recitation into parts for example from the first minute up to the fourth minute to the eighth minute to the twelfth minute you break this into parts and you literally imitate based off the recitation within that duration. Once you begin to think okay I think I have a good handle on this then you move on to the next portion of the minutes the four minutes the five minutes which you break it into and then to the next and then to the next after you feel like you have a good grasp of it you try to record yourself after you listen to the recitation maybe 50 times 100 times you then listen to the recitation one full time completely and then record yourself reciting those same lines from the same passage and then listen to it because the moment you listen to it you have your own experience okay I'm listening to my own voice how do I sound because there are things which we will never pick up just by practicing the best ways once you practice you record yourself and you give your chance the ability to listen to the recitation and to make notes okay I could have done this better how closely is this part to the actual reciter and another way is to actually give someone else to listen to where the truth is some people have stronger ears when it comes as we call the musical ear because you have the ability to pick up on certain melodies or tones which others may not necessarily so this is another way of improving our recitation the other thing which I will always recommend is to always look at the mushaf and to look at the the tajrid I cannot ever emphasize this enough because oftentimes the sound or the melody or the voice overtakes the importance and spending time to look at the mushaf and understanding what the Quran is saying especially if Arabic may not be our first language it's essential to understand that what we are actually imitating and reciting is something important as well as what the actual meaning of the Quran is