Tajweed rules are meant for improving the proficiency of Quran reciter. Linguistically, The word Tajweed means ‘proficiency’ or ‘doing something well. In the Quranic context, it means giving every letter of the Qur’an its rights and dues of characteristics.
The rules of tajweed were originated from the way Jabril has revealed Quran to the prophet Mohammed, So it was natural to the Arab. But after the expansion of the Islamic kingdom, many non-Arab nations to Islam have converted to Islam.
However, since they don’t know the Arabic language, they fell in many mistakes (the phenomenon is called Lahan (لحن in Arabic). That created the need for tajweed rules to be recorded.
In this article, we’ll talk about all of the Quran tajweed rules in detail- with examples for you to fully understand them. Keeping reading.
Quran is the words of Allah, and its recitation must be void of any mistakes that destroy the meanings of those words. For this reason, the Tajweed rules teach people how to recite the Quran perfectly, the way it was revealed to the prophet Mohammed.
That can be achieved through training the tongue to pronounce each letter clearly from its exit point (Makhraj) without exaggeration or compression. Also, it shows him the traits and attributes of the letters, So, he doesn’t mix them up, spoiling the meanings.
Thus, we can say that following the rules of Tajweed in reciting Quran protects the reciter from falling into mistakes
If a Meem ( م ) or Noon (ن is Mushaddad (that means it has Shaddah sign on it), the reciter must do Ghunnah (or Nasal sound) when pronouncing it. (Even if meem is positioned at the end of the word).
Examples:
بجهنّم | بالنّاصية | النّاس | لترونّ | أنّ |
إنّا | فأُمُّه | فأمّا | وأمّا | عمّ |
ادْخُلِ | أَجْر | يُبْصِرُونَ | أَطْعَمَهُ | مُّقْمَحُونَ |
Exercise on Surah Al Falaq. Listen to this recitation and focus your ear on the endings of each verse.
Letters are three types:
2. The letter Alif Madd (آ): If follows the trait of the letter preceding it. Thus, It’s pronounced heavy if the letter preceding it is heavy like in صالحًا. And it’s light if the letter preceding it is light like in باخع.
3. Laam (ل) is heavy only when pronouncing the word of Allah in اللهم ، الله and there is a Fatha or Dumma sign on the letter preceding it. But if there is a kasrah before the word Allah, then the Laam in Allah or Allahum will be light-like. بسمِ الله. Look at the example below where ل is pronounced heavy.
رُسُلُ اللَّهِ | أَخَذَ اللَّهُ | وَإِلَى الـلَّه | عَبْدُ الـلَّهِ |
There are many conditions when ر is pronounced heavy.
Likewise, there are conditions when ر is pronounced light, including:
Read also: How to teach Noorani Qaida in 10 simple steps?
• Noon Saakinah: is a Noon with no Harakah or with a Sukoon sign on it.
• Tanween:- Is actually a noon Saakinah which comes at the end of the nouns. It is pronounced but not written as Noon Shekinah. nouns. It is pronounced but not written as Noon Shekinah.
To know the condition of Noon Sakin and Tanween, look at the letters that come after it since it’s the determinant.
Noon Sakin | Tanween |
أَنْ | ـــــٌٌ |
أُنْ | ـــاُُ |
إنْ | ــــــِِ |
سُنـبُلَةٍ | لَنَسْفَعَا بِالنَّاصِيَة | أَن بُورِكَ | مَنْ بَخِلَ |
Examples for 4.Al Ikhfa in Quran:
أَندَاداً | بِرِيحٍ صَرْصَرٍ | لَيَؤُوسٌ كَـفُورٌ | يَنطِـقُونَ | رَحْمَةً ثُـمَّ | مَّن ذَا |
The definition of meem sakinah is meem that’s free of any vowels and which has a fixed Sakoon when continuing reading or stopping. The tajweed rules of Meem Sakinah are similar to Noon skin and tanween.
It occurs by opening the mouth slightly when meem Sakinah is followed by ب. For example, تَرْمِيهِم بِحِجَارَةٍ
Exercise for the rules of Meem Sakinah. Look at the example and hide the answer to think about the answer for a while before looking at the answer. (Note: to succeed in this quiz, look at the letter that follows meem sakina and think about the rule).
The Quranic example | Meem Sakinah Rule in the verse | Explanation |
(يَحْسَبُهُ الظَّمْآنُ مَاءً) | Izhar | Meem Sakinah is followed by hamza |
(كَم مِّن فِئَةٍ قَلِيلَةٍ غَلَبَتْ فِئَةً كَثِيرَةً) | Idghaam | Meem Sakinah is followed by a meem vowel. |
(عَلَيهِم دائِرَةُ السَّوءِ) | Izhar | Meem Sakinah is followed by دال |
(تَرْمِيهِم بِحِجَارَةٍ مِّن سِجِّيلٍ) | Ikhfa | Meem Sakinah is followed by ب |
(وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُم مَّثَلُ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا) | Idghaam | Meem Sakinah is followed by meem vowel |
(أَم بِظاهِرٍ مِنَ القَولِ) | Ikhfa | Meem Sakinah is followed by ب |
This is one of the important lessons in tajweed rules. First, Lam Sakinah is categorized into five:
Its definition: it’s an extra lam sakina affixed to a noun to define it and it’s preceded by alif Wasl. The noun that follows لام التعريف might be a regular noun that’s complete and understandable without the definite article such as الشمس أو القمر or it might be irregular that the لام التعريف is inherent and can’t be broken down such as التى ،الذى.
There are two tajweed rules for لام تعريف
If لام التعريف precedes a noun that begins with any of the 14 letters in this group (ابغ حجك وخف عقيمة), the lam is pronounced clearly and it’s called lam Qamariya لام قمرية.
Examples from Quranic words
الفيل | الغار | الخوف | المسكنة | الحجر | البرّ |
If لام التعريف precedes a noun that begins with any of the 14 letters in this group :
[ت / ث / د / ذ / ر / ز / س / ش / ص / ض / ط / ظ / ن / ل]
In this case, The lam is merged into the letters that follow it.
Examples from Quranic words
الزور | الرحمن | الليل | النحل | الصلاة | الشمس |
The general tajweed rule for lam sakina is اظهار if it’s followed by all letters except لام and راء.
Idghaam is applied in two cases
لام الحرف is Lam Sakinah inherent in the makeup of a noun and in the Quran, it’s not existed except for two letters: هل like هَلۡ يَسۡتَوِيَانِ﴾ [هود: 24]﴿ and بل like in بَلۡ أَكۡثَرُهُمۡ﴾ [البقرة: 100]﴿.
Madd in the Arabic language means extra and in tajweed, it means the lengthening of the sound for more than one movement
Madd’s letters are three:
All three types of Madd letters appear in one word in the following examples
Those are three Arabic letters (Alif, Ya, waw) if they’re Sakin and preceded by fatha. and they do not exist at the beginning of the letters.
For understanding what Leen’s letters look like, let’s take examples from Quranic verses.
Verse | Explanation |
(لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ) | Leen letter is و in the word نوم |
(يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ | Leen letter is ى in the word بين |
ذَلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لاَ رَيْبَ فِيهِ هُدًى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ | Leen letter is ى in the word ريب |
يَوْمَ يَفِرُّ الْمَرْءُ مِنْ أَخِيهِ | Leen letter is و in the word يوم |
It’s Medd inherent in the word and without it, the word doesn’t exist. You know it when there’s no Hamza or Sakoon before it’s lengthened to two vowel counts. The timing of each count depends solely on the speed of the reciter. And it has many forms:
It’s defined by the existence of the letter هاء and it requires three conditions to be applied.
It’s estimated to be two counts. (Note: the letter هاء here isn’t inherent in the word but affixed to it as a male pronoun. Example of it in the Quran are below
Note: when the to recite stops on هاء, the Madd is dropped totally and replaced with Sukoon.
Exceptions for The lesser connecting Madd :
وإن تشكروا يرضه لكم. Here there is no Madd even all of the conditions are met.
وَيَخْلُدْ فِيهِ مُهَانًا Here there is Madd even though all of the conditions aren’t met. (The letter before Madd is consonant -SAKIN.
It’s a Madd when the reciter stops at tanween fatha (تنوين منصوب), he turns tanween into Alif made. For example, the word جّنات ألفافًا is pronounced like جنات ألفافا, not جنّات ألفافن when stopping At it.
It usually occurs at the end of the verses.
It’s a lengthening that has a longer timing than the natural Madd. and it’s indicated by the occurrence of Hamza before the Medd letter or after it, regardless of whether the Sukoon is permanent. And it’s divided into two groups: The Madd due to Hamz and The Madd to Sakoon.
It includes four groups:
Occurs in the word in which the letter Madd comes after hamza. and it’s called بدل for the exchange of a Medd letter for a hamza. For example هَل ءامَنكُم عَلَيْه (the origin is أأمنكم and it has two Hamza: one is a vowel and the second is Sakin and it turns into Madd).
This Medd is lengthened to two counts.
It occurs when a hamza follows a Medd letter in the same word. It’s called واجب as it’s required and متصل because of the attachment of hamza and Medd in the same word
This Medd is lengthened to four or five counts.
Example :فكلوه هنيئًا مريئًا / ولقد جاءكم موسى
It occurs when a Medd letter is the last letter of the word, and Hamza is the first letter of the next word.
It can be too short as two counts or lengthened to 4 or 6 counts.
Example: فردوا أيديهم في أفواههم/ :تَبَّتْ يَدَا أَبِي لَهَبٍ وَتَبَّ
It occurs when the pronoun هـ is at the end of the word has a Dumma sign on it or Kasra. And is located between two vowels. and the first letter in the second word is Hamza.
It can be lengthened to two counts
Example: أَيَحْسَبُ أَنْ لَمْ يَرَهُ أَحَدٌ / وَلَا يُشْرِكْ بِعِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِ أَحَدًا
It’s Categorized into two types shown in the table below
مدّ اللين | المدّ العارض للسكون | |
Its letters | Two letters only ياء and واو | The three Medd letters ياء and ألف and واو |
Types of the letters | Leen letters Sakin and before it is Fatha | Medd letter Sakin alif preceded by Fatha Sakin ya perceded by kasra Sakin Waw preceded by Dumma |
Its state when continuing | Shorter than the natural Medd | Lengthened to two counts, the natural measure of the letters. |
There are many tajweed rules. In this article, we attempted to collect as many of them as possible. However, there is much longer and deeper information that is missed. For this reason, we’ll help you by referring you to the best Tajweed books here
The color-coded tajweed rules have been introduced by Idara and it includes seven Rules of Tajweed with seven different Colours, each color represents a Tajweed Rule. Buy it on Amazon right here.
Learning Tajweed rules are important as they act as a light for reciter and help them perfect their recitation and prevent them from falling into mistakes resulting from Ignorance.
In this article, you’ve known many rules about tajweed, including Madd, Qalqala, Gunna, Meem and Noon Sakin, and tanween. We hope you find the information here interesting and beneficial.
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