Tajwid

Mus'haf al-Tajweed, printed with colored letters to facilitate reading the Quran with Tajweed.

Tajwīd (Arabic: تجويد‎ taǧwīd: IPA: [tædʒˈwiːd]) is an Arabic word for elocution and refers to the rules governing pronunciation during recitation of the Qur'an. It is derived from the triliteral root ǧ-w-d, meaning to make well, make better, or improve. It is required by fard. There are Ten (tawātur) schools of Recitation, the most prevalent of which is the recitation of Imam 'Asim as transmitted by Imam Hafs.

Arabic alphabet and grammar

Arabic alphabet
ا    ب    ت    ث    ج    ح
خ    د    ذ    ر    ز    س
ش    ص    ض    ط    ظ    ع
غ    ف    ق    ك    ل
م    ن    ه    و    ي
History · Transliteration Diacritics · Hamza ء Numerals · Numeration

Main articles: Arabic alphabet and Arabic grammar

The Arabic alphabet has 28 basic letters.

The Arabic word for "the" is al- (the letters alif and lam). The lam in al- is pronounced if the letter after is "qamariyya" (lunar), but silent if the letter after is "shamsiyya" (solar).

Emission points

There are 17 emission points of the letters, or Makhaarijul Huruf, in various regions of the throat, tongue, lips, nose, as well as the mouth as a whole for the prolonged (Mudd) letters.

The manner of articulation, or Siffat al Huruf, refer 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, called Safeer, which is an attribute sound of air escaping from a tube.

Thickness and Thinness

See also: Emphatic consonants and Pharyngealization

The "mufakham" letters (خ,ص,ض,ط,ظ,غ,ق) are pronounced with a “heavy accent” or Tafkhim. Heavy accent is often pharyngealization, where the consonants are pronounced with a constricted pharynx. The rest of the letters, called "muraqqaq", have a “light accent” or Tarqeeq because they are pronounced normally, without pharyngealization (Except ع which is not considered heavy because it is a vowel).

ر is heavy when it has a fatḥah or ḍammah and light when it has a kasrah. If it has a sukun, then it is heavy if the first preceding letter without a sukun has a fatḥah or ḍammah. For example, the ر at the end of Al-Asr is heavy because the ع has a fatḥah.

وَالْعَصْرِِ 

It is light when the first preceding letter without a sukun has a kasrah.

ل is only heavy in the word Allah.

Prolongation

Prolongation refers to the number of beats that are pronounced when a voweled letter (fatḥah, ḍammah, kasrah) is followed by Alif, Yaah, and Waw, which are called MUDD letters. The number of beats then becomes two. Additionally, if there is a maddah sign over the mudd letter, then it is four or five counts when it is followed by a Hamzah (ء) and six counts when it is followed by a shaddah. For example, the end of the last verse in Al-Fatiha has a six beat maddah because of the shaddah on the ل.

صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنعَمتَ عَلَيهِمْ غَيرِ المَغضُوبِ عَلَيهِمْ وَلاَ الضَّالِّين 

Sakinah

NUN sakinah and tanween

Whenever there is a sukun on a nun, including tanween, it can be pronounced in four different ways: Clear (Idhar))(ء،ه،ع ،ح،غ،خ), Merged with the next letter (Idgham), Hidden (Ikhfa), and removed from a "nnn" sound to a "mmm" sound (Iqlaab).

MIM sakinah

The MIM sakinah can be pronounced in three different ways, clear (Idhar), prolonged nasalization (Ghunnah), and uncloselipped (ikhfaa shafawee).

Qalqalah

The five "qalqalah" letters are the consonants, ق,ط,ب,ج and د. Qalqalah is the addition of a slight bouncing sound to the consonant whose vowel sound is otherwise cancelled, such as by a sukūn, šaddah 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 when the letter is at the end of the word but does not have a šaddah. The biggest bounce is when the letter is at the end of the word and has a šaddah, such as the end of the first verse of Al-Masadd.

1. تَبَّتۡ یَدَاۤ اَبِیۡ لَہَبٍ وَّ تَبَّ
   
   

Stop signs

Stop signs, or rumuz al-awqaf are

مـ -- must stop

قلي -- better to stop

ج -- allowed to stop

صلي -- better not to stop

لا -- should not stop

Manners

Manners of the heart

• One should understand that the Qur'an is not the word of man.
• The reader should throw away all other thoughts.
• One should understand the meaning.
• One should be humble.
• One should feel that every message in the Qur'an is meant personally for himself or herself.

External manners

• One should be vigilant of the purity of body, clothes, and place.
• One is encouraged to face the Qiblah.
• One should stop at a verse of warning and seek protection with Allah.
• One should stop at a verse of mercy and ask Allah for mercy.
• One should use pure classical Arabic pronunciation, without foreign or dialectic influence.
• One should have wudhu(state of being pure) and read only for the sake of Allah.

See also

• Qari Abdul Basit 'Abd us-Samad
• Qari Ahmad bin Ali Al-Ajmi
• Qari Muhammad Farooq
• Qari Shakir Qasmi
• Qirat
• Qur'an reading

Analogous fields

• Elocution, the analogous modern Western study
• Phonetics
• Pronuntiatio, the analogous classical Western study

References

Books and Journals

• Chapter in "The Art of Reciting the Qur'an" by Kristina Nelson, American University in Cairo Press (Cairo, NY) 2001.
• “Theory and Practice of Tajwid,” Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, IV, Leiden, Brill, 2007 (or still in press)

External links

• Essential Ilm - Free Quality Lessons on Reciting Quran with Tajweed and Arabic Language
• Tajweed Study - Online resource for Tajweed study with lessons organised in chapters with audio samples
• Tajweed Practice - Practice pronouncing common letter combinations with Tajweed
• Studyislaam.org - Hifdh - Learn the fundamentals of Tajwid
• Youtube.com - Articulation of the Arabic Alphabet in Order of Articulation based upon the rules of Tajwid
• Recitation in Tajwid
• Tajweed in English - A Tajweed podcast in iTunes in English for English and French speakers.[ New videos on makharij [(points of articulations)] ]
• Tajweed Podcast - A Tajweed podcast in iTunes in English for English speakers
• AboutTajweed.com - Rules of Tajweed
• Tajwid.info - Tajwid with audio examples
• Altafsir.com - Qura'n and Recitations