In the past the famous Greek philosopher Pluto made sure that music is part of training the human’s personality. With all its types and affects on peoples’ emotions and experiences it is considered to be one of the most important elements in studying human behavior. Through out civilizations music played a major role in people’s lives, especially in religious teaching. 
In the Arab World music did not play any special roles in religion till after the beginning of the 7th century. Back then a new voice study that was connected with the reading of the Holy Quran through memorizing and reciting it. The study was then renamed, as the ‘religious recitation’ and the reciting of the Holy Quran became a major part of the Muslim culture.
According to the London daily Elaph, during the late 20th century, religious recitation and prayers became a major trend of the Holy month of Ramadan. Today religious prayers and recitations are becoming the latest trends and many famous music artists are turning into taking advantage of it. Singers from all over the Arab world are singing religious songs and making video clips for their songs. There might be two reasons behind adapting this style of music, for one the success of the Turkish singer Sami Yousif who has changed all views of religious music, has pulled many Arab singers to follow in his footstep. The other reason, many wanted to play the role of the fighter after the incident that happened in Denmark, when Danish journalists insulted Prophet Muhammad Peace be upon him. Some Arab singers wanted to gain the respect and love of their fans and religious figures in order to widen their fame horizon.
It is important to mention that there are more than 30 religious songs for famous singers like: (Ali Hajar, Latifa, Muhammad Al Hilo, Eman Al Baher Darwish, Tareq Fouad, Mustafa Qamar, Hisham Abbas, Khaled Ali, Fariq Wama, Sa’ed Al Saghir, May Farouq, Senegal singer Yousif Ndor and Al Sheikh Mashari). Like solo songs there are religious albums, which are being made by famous Egyptian singer Ehab Tawfiq, who just released his new religious album called “Ila Rasol Allah” (Only The Prophet of God) during the month of Ramadan, which holds 12 different religious prayers. Like Ehab, Egyptian singer Tamer Husni released “Al Jana Fi Biutina” (Heaven in our Homes). Likewise Egyptian singer Shireen Abd Al Wahab was working on recording her prayers album yet she found out that she is pregnant and had to postpone her project. 
In the Beginning Tunisian singer Latifa who recited prayers for Egyptian Radio says during the holy month of Ramadan stated she has enjoyed the experience of this new style of spiritual singing and it gave her a new meaning and new feeling towards singing. However, this is not the first time for Ehab Tawfiq to make religious songs or prayers. He has previously released the song “Asma’ Allah Al Husna” (God’s Gracious Names) and it was a great success. Ehab’s enthusiasm to perform such songs is for his strong believe in changing the wrong views and lead people into the right direction.
On the other hand Egyptian singer Mustafa Qamar who for the first time performed a song in the formal Arabic dialect called “Sa’lna Allah” (We Ask God), says that after seeing the awful and hurtful drawing of the Prophet Muhammad he became furious. Since Qamar has no means or types of weapon only his voice; therefore, he performed this song and filmed a clip for it so it can reach a large number of his fans.
In the end whether this style of singing “religious recitation or prayer” is just a phase, many would agree it’s by far better than most of the “porno” style of singing that are shown on most Arabic music channels.
© 2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
