Tajwid


In the context of the recitation of the Quran, tajwīd is a set of rules for the correct pronunciation of the letters with all their qualities and applying the various traditional methods of recitation. In Arabic, the term tajwīd is derived from the triliteral root j-w-d, meaning enhancement or to make something excellent. Technically, it means giving every letter its right in reciting the Qur'an.

History

The history of Quranic recitation is tied to the history of qira'at, as each reciter had their own set of tajwid rules, with much overlap between them.
Abu Ubaid al-Qasim bin Salam was the first to develop a recorded science for tajwid, giving the rules of tajwid names and putting it into writing in his book called al-Qiraat. He wrote about 25 reciters, including the 7 mutawatir reciters. He made the reality, transmitted through reciters of every generation, a science with defined rules, terms, and enunciation.
Abu Bakr Ibn Mujāhid wrote a book called Kitab al-Sab’ fil-qirā’āt "The Seven of the Recitations." He is the first to limit the number of recitations to the seven known.
Imam Al-Shatibi wrote a poem outlining the two most famous ways passed down from each of seven strong imams, known as ash-Shatibiyyah. In it, he documented the rules of recitation of Naafi’, Ibn Katheer, Abu ‘Amr, Ibn ‘Aamir, ‘Aasim, al-Kisaa’i, and Hamzah. It is 1173 lines long and a major reference for the seven qira’aat.
Ibn al-Jazari wrote two large poems about Qira'at and tajwid. One was Durrat Al-Maa'nia , in the readings of three major reciters, added to the seven in the Shatibiyyah, making it ten. The other is Tayyibat An-Nashr, which is 1014 lines on the ten major reciters in great detail, of which he also wrote a commentary.

Religious Obligation

Knowledge of the actual tajwīd rules is a community duty, meaning that at least one person in every community must know it. There is a difference of opinion on the ruling for individuals. Dr. Shadee el-Masry states that it is an individual obligation on every Muslim to recite the opening chapter of the Qur'an with correct tajwīd, though they do not need to know the terms and definitions of the rules themselves. Sheikh Zakariyya al-Ansari stated that it is sinful to recite in a way that changes the meaning or changes the grammar. If it does not change these two things, then it is not sinful, even if it is a clear error.

Qur'an and Hadith on Tajwīd

The central Quranic verse about tajwid is verse 73:4: "...and recite the Qur'an with measured recitation." The word tartīl تَرْتِيْل, as used in this verse, is often also used in hadith in conjunction with its command. It means to articulate slowly, carefully, and precisely.
Abu Dawud's hadith collection has a chapter heading titled "Recommendation of tartīl in the Qur'an." It begins with the narration: "The Messenger of Allah peace and blessings be upon him said: One who was devoted to the Qur'an will be told to recite, ascend and recite carefully as he recited carefully when he was in the world, for he will reach his abode when he comes to the last verse he recites." This narration describes the importance of the manner of recitation and its positive effects in the afterlife. The next narration describes the importance of prolongation : "Qatadah said: I asked Anas about the recitation of the Qur'an by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. He said: He used to express all the long accents clearly ." This narration also shows that even the companions of the prophet used some terms which are still used today in tajwīd rules.

Arabic alphabet and grammar

The Arabic alphabet has 28 basic letters, plus hamzah.

The Arabic definite article is ال al-. The lām in al- is pronounced if the letter after it is "qamarīyah", but if the letter after it is "shamsīyah", the lām after it becomes part of the following letter. "Solar" and "lunar" became descriptions for these instances as the words for "the moon" and "the sun" are examples of this rule.
Lunar letters:

Solar letters:

Emission points

There are 17 emission points of the letters, located in various regions of the throat, tongue, lips, nose, and the mouth as a whole for the prolonged letters.
The manner of articulation refers to the different attributes of the letters. Some of the characteristics have opposites, while some are individual. An example of a characteristic would be the fricative consonant sound called ṣafīr, which is an attribute of air escaping from a tube.

Thickness and thinness

The emphatic consonants, known as mufakhkham letters, are pronounced with a "heavy accent". This is done by either pharyngealization /ˤ/, i.e. pronounced while squeezing one's voicebox, or by velarization /ˠ/. The remaining letters – the muraqqaq – have a "light accent" as they are pronounced normally, without pharyngealization.
is heavy when accompanied by a fatḥah or ḍammah and light when accompanied by a kasrah. If its vowel sound is cancelled, such as by a sukūn or the end of a sentence, then it is light when the first preceding voweled letter has a kasrah. It is heavy if the first preceding voweled letter is accompanied by a fatḥah or ḍammah. For example, the at the end of the first word of the Sūrat "al-ʻAṣr" is heavy because the has a fatḥah:


is only heavy in the word Allāh. If, however, the preceding vowel is a kasrah, then the in Allāh is light, such as in the Bismillah:

Prolongation

Prolongation refers to the number of morae that are pronounced when a voweled letter is followed by a madd letter. The number of morae then becomes two. If these are at the end of the sentence, such as in all the verses in "al-Fatiha", then the number of morae can be more than two, but must be consistent from verse to verse. Additionally, if there is a maddah sign over the madd letter, it is held for four or five morae when followed by a hamzah and six morae when followed by a shaddah. For example, the end of the last verse in "al-Fatiha" has a six-mora maddah due to the shaddah on the .

''Sākinah'' (vowelless) letters

''Nūn sākinah'' and ''tanwīn''

Nūn sākinah refers to instances where the letter nūn is accompanied by a sukun sign, some cases of which involve tanwīn's nun with a sukun. There are then four ways it should be pronounced, depending on which letter immediately follows:

''Iẓhār''

  1. iẓhār  : the nūn sound is pronounced clearly without additional modifications when followed by "letters of the throat". Consider the nūn with a sukun pronounced regularly in the beginning of the last verse in "al-Fatiha":

''Iqlāb''

  1. iqlāb  : the nūn sound is converted to a sound if it is followed by a. Additionally, it is pronounced in a ghunnah. Consider the nūn sound on the tanwīn on the letter jīm that is pronounced as a mīm instead in the chapter Al-Hajj:

''Idghām''

  1. idghām  : the nūn sound is not pronounced when followed by a or another, the last 4 letters also including ghunnah in the process. Idghām only applies between two words and not in the middle of a word. Consider for example the nūn that is not pronounced in the fifth line in the Call to Prayer:

Ikhfāʼ

  1. ikhfāʼ : the nūn sound is not fully pronounced if it is followed by any letters other than those already listed, includes a ghunnah. Consider the nūn that is suppressed in the second verse of the chapter Al-Falaq:

''Mīm sākinah''

The term mīm sākinah refers to instances where the letter mīm is accompanied by a sukun. There are then three ways it should be pronounced, depending on which letter immediately follows:
  1. idgham mutamathilayn  when followed by another mīm : the mīm is then merged with the following mīm and includes a ghunnah;
  2. ikhfāʼ shafawī : the mīm is suppressed when followed by a, with a ghunnah; Consider the mīm that is suppressed in the second verse of the chapter Al-Fil:
  3. *
  4. iẓhār shafawī  : the mīm is pronounced clearly with no amendment when followed by any letters other than those already listed.

    ''Qalqalah''

The five qalqalah letters are the consonants . Qalqalah is the addition of a slight "bounce" or reduced vowel sound /ə/ to the consonant whose vowel sound is otherwise cancelled, such as by a sukūn, shaddah, or the end of sentence. The "lesser bounce" occurs when the letter is in the middle of a word or at the end of the word but the reader joins it to the next word. A "medium bounce" is given when the letter is at the end of the word but is not accompanied by a shaddah, such as the end of the first verse of the Sūrat "al-Falaq":

The biggest bounce is when the letter is at the end of the word and is accompanied by a shaddah, such as the end of the first verse of Sūrat "al-Masad"'':

''Waṣl''

Waṣl is the rule of not pronouncing alif as a glottal stop /ʔ/, assimilating to its adjacent vowel. It is indicated with the diacritic waṣlah, a small ṣād on the letter alif. In Arabic, words starting with alif not using a hamzah receive a waṣlah...

In most of the cases, the vowel that must be used before the alif waṣlah is obvious ; but if it is preceded by a word ending on a sukun, then these are the rules:
EndingAcquired value of sukūn after alif waṣlahExample
Tanwin /-n/1Tanwin + kasrah /-ni/
Muhammad the generous.
/muħamːaduni lkariːm/
Plural mim2Damma /-u/
Peace be upon them.
/alayhimu s-salām/
All other cases3Kasra /-i/

1 In the case of Tanwin and alif waṣlah, the intrusive kasrah between them is not graphically represented.
2 Plural mim is the ending of هُمْ or كُمْ as noun suffixes and تُمْ as a verb suffix, which normally end as /hum/, /kum/ and /tum/ respectively. But in some cases /hum/ becomes /him/; nevertheless, it continues as /him-u/. These three always take a damma /-u/.
3 مِنْ is an exception to this, which always takes a fatha /-a/ if it be conjoined with the next word.

''Waqf''

Waqf is the Arabic pausa rule; all words whose last letter end on a harakah become mute when being the last word of a sentence.
Last letter of a word with a ḥarakahInherited value of the ending ḥarakah in pausa Examples

Ending on any ḥarakah		Sukūn /∅/ - house
- The Lord
- hospital
- Thank you

Ending on any ḥarakah		 - queen

In the case of the proper name عمرو /ʕamrun/, it is pronounced /ʕamr/ in pausa, and the last letter و wāw has no phonetical value. And in fact, عمرو is a triptote.
عمرو
/ʕamr/
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Pausal form

Manners

Manners of the heart