Sheikh Hani Ar-Rifai هاني الرفاعي

Sheikh Hani Ar-Rifai (b. 1974, Jeddah) is a Saudi Quran reciter who had memorised the Quran by the age of twelve. He serves as imam and khatib of the Al-Anani Mosque in Jeddah, and was chosen as personal reciter to King Fahd ibn Abdulaziz.

He graduated from the Islamic Studies department of the Faculty of Arts at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, where his teachers included Sheikh Khaldoun Al-Ahdab and Sheikh Ali Jaber, the former imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, on whom he also read part of the Quran. He holds an ijazah in the Hafs 'an 'Asim narration from the Egyptian Sheikh Muhammad Abdul Rahim Ashishi.

Before becoming King Fahd's personal reciter, he was appointed by the Saudi Ministry of Information as a reciter for the Royal Court. He has recorded the complete murattal Quran twice in the Hafs narration, has written books including Shifa' al-Alil min al-Quran al-Karim and Muhkam al-Tanzil, and worked as a teacher of Islamic studies in government secondary schools. In 2019, Al-Watan reported that he was director of the Sharia Affairs department at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah.

Two things tend to place Hani's voice: a soft, unhurried pace that suits long listening; and careful, textbook articulation, which is why students are often pointed to him. That is our own listening note to help you place the voice, not a sourced biographical claim.