On the passing away anniversary of Sheikh Mustafa Ismail, the outstanding Egyptian Quran reciter, khamenei.ir publishes excerpts form Ayatollah Khamenei's statements about him:
In Tehran no one knew of any other Quran reciter besides Abdelbasit. When I came to Tehran, Abdelbasit was the only reciter who was famous. In Mashhad, we had cassettes of Mustafa Ismail’s recitation. A friend of mine was planning a trip, I asked him to bring us as many cassettes of Mustafa Ismail’s recitations as he could find. He brought us some of the best of Mustafa Ismail’s recitations. I gave them to Mr. Morteza Fatemi—who, in those days, would copy the cassettes for us—so he could make duplicates of the tapes. After he made the copies, he gave them to a few friends who were visiting from Tehran. Consequently, the cassettes with Mostafa Ismail’s recitations spread throughout Tehran and Sheikh Mustafa Ismail became popular. His recitation was truly amazing. He was outstanding!
Ayatollah Khamenei, February 20, 1991.
Actually, Sheikh Mustafa Ismail was alive after the revolution; however, I had different concerns during the first years after the revolution. Otherwise, I would have invited Sheikh Mustafa Ismail to Tehran by any means possible.
Ayatollah Khamenei, April 26, 1991
I have a copy of the Quran, where I would write on the back cover the names of reciters I had heard on the radio. In 1970, when Gamal Abdel Nasser died, I took a transistor radio with me to the prison. Of course, after a while they stopped allowing us to take radios inside the prison. At that time, different reciters would recite verses from Quran on the passing of Abdel Nasser, and they displayed their impressive vocal skills. I remember both Sheikh Mustafa Ismail and Mahmoud Ali Al Banna recited the verse “How many a prophet there has been with whom a multitude of godly men fough…”[1]
Ayatollah Khamenei, October 31, 1994
There is a difference between a reciter who pays attention, and recites according to the meaning of what he is reciting, and the reciter who does not pay attention to the meaning. There are two or three reciters among Egyptian reciters whose recitations are affected by the meaning of what they recite. It is for the same reason that Mustafa Ismail’s recitation is so impressive; he himself is effected by the verses he recites.
Ayatollah Khamenei, March 08, 1993
Ayatollah Khamenei admired Mustafa Ismail so much, he told his family that if the Islamic Revolution was successful, he would take them to Egypt to meet Mustafa Ismail.
[1] Quran 3:146
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