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10. SCIENCE OF TAJWĪD (1)

What is tajwīd? It is derived from the verb د to do well, to) جوmake better, to improve). The term tajwīd literally means ني س ح ت

(beautification, improvement, betterment) and انقت إ (perfection, mastery, proficiency). Technically, tajwīd is a science dealing with rules to be followed during recitation of the Qur’an according to what Muslims learned from Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. It means every letter in has to be pronounced properly, and every word in the Qur’an has to be articulate properly. It is a religious duty to do it when reciting the Qur’an to the best one’s ability.

Arabic is the language of the Qur’an which has to be recited in its original texts in prayers. As Islam is embraced by various nationalities other than the Arabs, each of them has its own problem with Arabic language in general, and citing the Qur’an in particular. French people, for example, although they have letter “h” in their language, but it is not pronounced, such as “hôtel”, and “hôpital,” but when they say them in English, “hotel” and “hospital,” the letter “h” has to be pronounced clearly. They will encounter more problems in Arabic which has two kinds of “h” and which have to be articulated differently, such as the word “ḥalāl” )حالل( meaning “lawful, legal” and “hilāl” )ه الل( meaning "crescent". Another problem is articulating the letter “kh” )خ( , such as the word “khilāl” but the ,(”meaning “during, between, through; pin, skewer )خ الل(Dutch and the Germans have no problem with it, as they have it in their languages, such as “gram”, and “doch” respectively.

Letter “gh” emitted from the throat is another letter )غ(difficult to articulate, such as “ghayr” )ر ,meaning “other than )غي different from.” A German student at al-Azhar in Cairo said that articulating letter “gh” in Arabic is close to letter “r” which is also emitted from the throat in German, so that to say ghayr properly it is like saying rayr, but the first “r” is slowly turned into “g”, namely, rgayr.

There are two kinds of “t” in Arabic: dental “t” )ت(, such as “anta” )ت such as ,)ط( ”meaning “you” (masc.), and the “heavy t )أن

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“ṭayr” )ر )طي meaning “a bird”. This letter sounds like letter “t” in the word “time” pronounced in the Australian accent. To make distinction between the two, we put a dot under the heavy letter t, namely, “ṭ” in its transliteration.

There are two kinds of letter “k” in Arabic: the normal one is “k” )ك( , such as “kalb” )كل ب(, meaning “a dog”, and the emitted from the throat k” )ق(, such as “qalb” )قل ب(, meaning “a heart”.Apparently, this letter ق is not so easy to pronounce, that it is dropped in the Egyptian slang, so that qalb becomes alb, whereas in the Saudi Arabian slang it is replaced with letter “g” so that it is pronounced “galb,” like “gulf” in English. In order to make distinction between the two “k”s, the emitted from the throat “k” is written in its transliteration with “q” (in the earlier transliteration it was written with a dot under letter “k”).

There are two kinds of “a” in Arabic: the normal “a” )أ(, which is called alif in Arabic, such as “asā” )أسى(, meaning “to be sad, to be distressed”, and the emitted from the throat “a” )ع(, which is called in Arabic ‘ayn )ع(, such as “‘asā” )عسى(, meaning “it might be, it could be”.

There are two kinds of “z” in Arabic: the normal “z” )ز(, such as

“zayt” )ت )زي , meaning “oil”, and “z close to d” )ظـ( , such as “ẓālim” its ,(ظـ) ”meaning “a wrong-doer”. For the “z” close to “d ,)ظال م(transliteration is a dot is put under the letter z, namely, ẓ.

There are two Arabic letters which are also hard to pronounce, namely, letter ص (its transliteration is a dot under letter s, namely, ṣ) which sounds like the whistle of boiling water in the kettle, such as the word ṣalāt (ة)صال , meaning “prayer”. The other letter is ض (its transliteration is a dot put under letter d, namely, ḍ), such as “ḍalāl” 1.(”meaning “straying from the right path or from truth, error ,)ضالل(

1 It is said that the Japanese language has no letter “l”, whereas the Chinese languages have no letter “r”, so that the Japanese and the Chinese in learning English will have problem in saying the word “really”, “lorry”, “rarely”. Our Japanese and Chinese Muslim brothers and sisters will confirm or deny this.

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The Arabic language has no letter “p”, so that this letter is replaced with letter “b”, such as “Pakistan” becomes “Bākistān” Napoleon” becomes“ ,)يابان( ”Japan” becomes “Yābān“ ,)باكستان(“Nābulyūn” )نابليون(, etc. Sometimes names are completely changed in Arabic, such as “Plato” becomes “Aflāṭūn” )أفالطون(, and “Nebuchadnezzar” becomes “Bukhtunaṣṣar” نصر(ت)بخ .

There has been an attempt to invent a new letter for letter “p” in Arabic, namely, three dots: one dot for letter “b”, two dots for letter “y”, and three dots for letter “p”, but so far, this attempt has not been very successful, but adopted in Urdu language. However, in other languages that adopted the Arabic scripts, many new letters have been introduced in their Arabic scripts to accommodate letters not found in Arabic, such as letter “ch” for “church, chair” and letter “g” for “go, get”, letter “ng” for “long, sing” etc. The Urdu language which is the official language of Pakistan and the Persian language of former Persia, now called Iran have adopted the Arabic scripts and invented special scripts to accommodate their respective languages.

In order to pronounce Arabic letters properly there are 17 emission points of the letter (makhārij al-ḥurūf). They are located in various regions of the throat, tongue, lips, and nose. Wrong pronunciation would give wrong meaning, such as qalb means “a heart”, whereas kalb means “a dog”. The word maṭar means “rain”, whereas maṭār (with long “a”) means “an airport.” In English we have to make clear distinction in pronouncing words, like: “later, latter, letter, litter, litre, etc.”2

There are two main branches in the knowledge of about tajwīd: The correct pronunciation of letters in different places, and the correct length and emphasis of the vowels under different circumstances.

1. The correct pronunciation of letters in different places, such as the following:

2 A friend from Nigeria when he said “come” it was like saying “comb”, and “mother” like “modern.” I do not know whether this is his own English or the Nigerian English.

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a. Assimilation (إدغام ), which is divided into two:

(1) Full Assimilation )إدغام بال غنة(, i.e., without nasalization. The sound “n” followed by either letter “l” ”or “r)ل( ,)ر(the sound “n” )ن( disappears and the letter “l” or “r” are doubled and become “ll” or “rr”, such as, Ashhadu aN Lā(pronouncedaLLā) )ال and anna muḥammadaN … ,)أشهدأنRasūlullāh (pronounced muḥammadaR Rasūlullāh) )محمدا هللا( To remember: “suddeNLy” (read “suddeLLy”) .رسولand “suNRise” (read “suRRise”)

(2) Nasal Assimilation ( بغنة إدغام ), occurs when the sound “N” is follows by one of the following letters, the sound “N” disappears and the letters that follow it are doubled, as follows”

- “M”)م(, n+m=mm; rasūluN Minhum,, read rasūluMMinhum (”Remember: “iNMate” and read “iMMate) )رسولمنهم(

- “Y” (ي) , n+y=yy maN Yashā’, read maYYashā’ )منيشاء( (Remember: teN Years read teYYears) - “W” (و) , n+w=ww; hudaN Waraḥmah read hudaW

Waraḥmah )هدىورحمة( (Remember: seveN Weeks read seveWWeeks)

- “N”)ن(, n+n=nn jannātuN Na‘īm read jannātuNNa‘īm (م)جناتنعي (the same). (Remember: uNNatural), no change!

To remember all these, try to read this sentence based on assimilation: “It is suddenly sunrise, but it is unnatural to have an inmate for ten years and seven weeks.” However, there are four exceptions, namely, bunyān

dunyā ,)بنيان( )دنيا( , qinwān )قنوان( , and ṣinwān )صنوان( .

b. Substitution )إقالب(. The sound “N” when it is followed by letter

“B” )ب( the sound “N” turns into “M”. n+b=mb. For example:

samī‘uN Baṣīr read samī‘uM Baṣīr )سميعبصير(

(Remember: CaNBerra shoud be read CaMBerra; in bed

becomes im bed; umbearable, sumbeam, Hudsom Bay, cannom

balls, etc. where sound “n” is turned into “m”.

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(When I wrote “Ibn Ḥanbal” in my writing the editor

“corrected” it with “Ibn Ḥambal” as it is pronounced so)

c. Intensification )قلقلة(. There are five letters which should be

very clearly articulated when they have no vowel, whether in

the middle of the sentence or at the end of it. They are:

- “Q” ق() , such as: khalaqnā read khalaqənā, (خلقنا)

min ‘alaq read min ‘alaqə )منعلق(

This is extremely important to make it pronounced differently

from letter “K” )ك(. “Khalaqənā” )خلقنا( means “We have

created”, whereas “Halaknā” )هلكنا( means “We have become

perished”

- ”Ṭ” )ط(, such as: fiṭrah read fiṭərah; mahīṭ read mahīṭə محيط

This is also extremely important to distinguish between “Ṭ”

)متروك( ”matrūk“ .)ت( ”and “T )ط( means “heritage, legacy,

(something) left” whereas “maṭərūqə” means )مطروق(

“(something) much frequented, much traveled, much discussed

(subject)”. In the past we had ghalat which means )غلت(

“mistake” in calculation, but no longer found in modern Arabic

dictionary, and ghalaṭə )غلط( which is mistake in general sense.

-“B” )ب(, such subḥānallāh read subəḥānallāh )سبحانهللا(

waqab read waqabə )وقب(

This is also important to distinguish between “B” (ب) and “F”

()كسبت ”Kasabəta” .)ف( means “you have earned, you win”,

whereas “kasafta” كسفت() means “you have reproved (s.o.)”.

“J” )ج(, such as yaj‘alūna read yajə‘alūna; )يجعلون(

burūj read burūjə.)بروج(

“D” )د(, such as yadkhulūna read yadəkhulūna )يدخلون(

yalid read yalidə )يلد(

This is also important to make distinction between “D” (د)

and “T” (ت). yudəriku درك()ي means “he understands, he

realizes”, whereas yatruku )يترك( means “he leaves”.

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In order to remember these 5 letters, 2 are not available

in English letter: ق (in transliteration “q”), and ط (in

transliteration “ṭ”), and we joined them and becomes قط,

pronounced “qiṭṭ” which means “cat”. The other three letters

we remember the second, the third and the fourth letters of

the classical Arabic alphabet, أبجد , namely, ب or of , د and ,ج ,

the Greek alphabet, (Alpha α), Beta (β), Gamma (γ), Delta (δ),

representing the three letters, B, J and D.

If we read surūt al-Ikhlāṣ (chaper 112) we shall see that all

of its five verses end with letter “d”, and should be articulated

clearly, namely, “…də.” For walam yakuN lahū read walam

yakuLLahū ( لهيكنولم ). Remember “suddenly” becomes

suddeLLy. The chapter which follows it, sūrat al-Falaq (chapter

113), its five verses end with “Q” twice, with “B” once, and with

“D” twice, all should be clearly articulated, namely, …qə, …bə,

and …də.

Sūrat al-Masad (chapter 111) four of its five verses end

with “B”, and the last verse ends with “D”, all have to be

articulated clearly. For abī lahabiN Wattabb read abī

lahabiWWatabbə لهبوتب ()أبي . Remember seveN Weeks read

seveWWeeks

As Muslims, whatever background we come from and whatever

mother-tongue we have, we need to learn reading the Qur’an

properly as good as we can, to avoid what the Arabs call laḥn

(mispronunciation). We do not want to say, for example, “a dog”

(kalb) when we mean “a heart” (qalb).

(To be continued) (Civic, 20 March, 2015)

Sources:

Denffer, Ahmad von. ‘Ulūm al-Qur’ān. Kuala Lumpur: The Islamic

Foundation, 1983

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajwid