Rachid Ifrad

Moroccans have long been known for their deep devotion to the Book of Allah the Exalted. The scholar Ibn Khaldun described them as the most dedicated of all people to having their children memorize the Holy Quran and to teaching it to them. This is why Morocco remains, to this day, a country living through a “constantly renewed Quranic revival,” a revival that has produced a number of young reciters who have graced the skies of Quranic tajweed, as is the case with the reciter Rachid Ifrad.

Sheikh Rachid ibn Ibrahim Abu al-Walid Ifrad, the Quran reciter, was born in 1395 AH (1975) in Marrakesh, into a conservative family known for its attachment to religious teachings. This environment gave him a natural aptitude for memorizing the Holy Quran, which he completed at the age of sixteen at the Dar al-Quran of the Association for the Call to the Quran and Sunnah in his hometown of Marrakesh.

Throughout his years of study, Sheikh Rachid Ifrad was keen to deepen his knowledge of Islamic law and to draw its sciences from accomplished teachers. He studied the Islamic sciences at the Dar al-Quran of the Association for the Call to the Quran and Sunnah, and learned tajweed and the qira’at from Sheikh Abd al-Kabir Abu Yasser Akboub.

Along the same lines, Sheikh Ifrad decided to move to Egypt to complete his studies. There he learned the minor and major ten readings from the chief of Egypt’s Quran reciters, Sheikh Ahmed ibn Issa Al-Masarawi, and obtained an ijazah in the ten readings through the routes of al-Shatibiyyah and al-Durrah.

After graduating, Sheikh Rachid Ifrad set out to combine reciting the Quran with teaching it to the younger generation and helping them memorize it.