Clarity is sometimes what we’re all after. Likewise, some things just need to be said as clear as mmmmud. Right?

Rule three: Ith-haar Shafawee (pronouncing the meem clearly)

Ith-haar Shafawee is pronouncing the meem saakinah (مْ) clearly and occurs when any of the remaining [excluding the letters meem and baa (ب)] follow a meem saakinah. The condition here is that these letters have a diacritic on them, (fat-ha, dammah, kasra).

Examples of Ith-haar Shafawee:

mathaluhum kamathali

am lahum

hum feehaa

Resources Link:

–Sukoon [Gatway To Arabic: page 48]

-Tajweed Rule [Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: second half page 10]

Al-Meem Al-Saakinah: rule two

December 16, 2010June 1, 2011 tajweed me3 Comments

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The first rule for Al-Meem Al-Saakinah looked at the succession of a meem after a meem saakinah (مْ).

The second rule looks at meem saakinah followed by a baa (ب).

Rule two: Ikhfaa Shafawee (Hiding the sound by the use of the lips)

The second rule is enacted only when the latter baa follows a silent meem (meem saakinah). The condition here is that the baa must be mutaharik, i.e. have a diacritic (fat-ha, dammah, kasra).

The sound of the meem is hidden and the lips are shaped, ready to pronounce the baa. You may ask how can the meem be hidden? The answer is simple: do not press your two lips together completely [as you would if you were to pronounce a full meem]. Leave a very little gap and let the sound of the meem come from the deeper part of your mouth while you prepare to say the baa. By letting the meem come from the inner mouth, it’s sound stays encapsulated behind the teeth, and so the meem is hidden. Remember that this rule is carried out for two counts, i.e. the time it takes to say the words, “one – two”.

On a different, yet very important, note…

The rules for Al-Noon Al-Saakinah used a shaddah for notice purposes, i.e. to remind the reader to carry out the Al-Noon Al-Saakinah rule. Here, instead, the meem remains completely free of any diacritic. This is a notice for the reader to do ikhfaa shafawee.

And one last thing to recall…

At the end of the meem rules, I keep using the word “shafawee“. This is very important to distinguish the normal noon saakinah/tanween idghaam/ith-haar/ikhfaa from the ones done by the lips for the meem saakinah.

Examples of Ikhfaa Shafawee:

hum bil-aakhirati

tarmeehem bi-hijaaraten

ayyuhum bithaalika

Resources Link:

–Sukoon [Gatway To Arabic: page 48]

-Tajweed Rule [Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: second half page 10]

-Makhaarij Al-Huroof [dot point 15]

Al-Meem Al-Saakinah: rule one

December 12, 2010June 1, 2011 tajweed meLeave a comment

NOTE: if you are new to the website, please click here for a brief guide.

As with Al-Noon Al-Saakinah, Al-meem Al-saakinah has it’s own Tajweed rules.

The fourth rule for Al-Noon Al-Saakinah described what idghaam is. Because meem is a letter pronounced using the lips^[1]the rule differs a bit.

Rule one: Idghaam Shafawee (Lip-based Merging or Merging with the use of lips).

For any meem saakinah, when a second meem follows it, Idghaam Shafawee is sounded for two counts, i.e. the time it takes to say the words, “one – two”. The condition here is that the latter meem has a fat-ha, dammah or kasra on it. Note a shaddah on the second meem is drawn as a notice of this rule [i.e. it is not there for shaddah purposes].

Examples of Idghaam Shafawee are as follow:

___ __

lahum maa ____quloobihim maradun

__ _____

faghashiyahum mina ______ am man

Simple as that. Practice makes perfect.

Resources Link:

–Idghaam [Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: page 12]

–Sukoon [Gatway To Arabic: page 48]

-Tajweed Rule [Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: second half page 10]

^[1] -View the document ‘Maakharij Al -Huroof’ or ‘Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More’ pages 3 and 4 titled Origin of Letters

Noon and Meem Mushaddadah

December 10, 2010November 11, 2011 tajweed me4 Comments

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shaddah

Qaala sanashuddu ‘adudaka bi akheeka

Allah said: “We will strengthen your arm through your brother..”

In the Arabic language, there are diacritics [including the fat-ha, dhammah and kasrah] that can be the reason a word’s meaning changes completely. One of these diacritics is the shaddah. Insha Allah I will briefly explain what this is and move on to the Tajweed rule regarding the Noon and Meem letters that have a shaddah.

Directly translating the word shaddah, results in the meaning “[sign of] emphasis”. In general language, it means to pull or make something tight. But how does the shaddah actually function? It stresses a letter by doubling it’s sound. As given in a previous post [see “Al-Noon Al-Saakinah: rule four”], a shaddah consists of two letters [hence the doubling]:

The first letter is a saakin, i.e. it has sukoon on it

The second letter has a respective diacritic, fat-ha, dammah, or kasrah.

The example given in the previous post was:

fawaylun lillatheena

Here we noted that the first shaddah on the laam was there for notice purposes, and the second was there to be a shaddah and double that second laam. And so the word is read as:

lil-latheena as written above, lillatheena

See, two laam‘s.

Just to be sure it all makes sense, a few more examples of shaddah are as follow:

________________

kar-ratan fanatabar-ra‘a _______________ it-tabi‘u

karratan fanatabarra’a _______________ ittabi‘u

wal mutal-laqaatu yatarab-basna

wal mutallaqaatu yatarabbasna

bu‘ulatuhun-na ahaq-qu birad-dihin-na

bu‘ulatuhunna ahaqqu biraddihinna

To briefly explain the colour code. The light green is where the doubling of the letter occurs. The darker green is the respective diacritic that follows the doubling.

Now that the shaddah is down-pat understood, the Tajweed rule regarding the shaddah is as follows.

For every noon and meem mushaddad, i.e. for every noon and meem that have a shaddah, one must sound a ghunnah.

Recall a ghunnah is the sound made entirely by the nose [nasal passage]. It is almost like a hum and completes the sound of the noon or meem. Ghunnah is directly translated to “nasalisation” and this should not be longer than two counts. i.e. similar to the time it takes to say the words: “one – two”

This rule in Arabic is called, ghunnat noon/meem mushaddadah.

It is the simplest rule, because you just need to check, does the noon/meem have a shaddah on top? If so, sound a ghunnah.

Examples for ghunnat noon mushadadah are:

____________________

Examples of ghunnat meem mushaddadah are:

____________________

And it’s as simple as that! This Tajweed rule is complete! Where you see a shaddah on a meem or noon, just do a ghunnah.

But wait.

As I mentioned, diacritics have the ability to change the entire meaning of a word/sentence. I don’t like to just say things, so let’s prove it.

Let’s look at the word:

دَرَسَ

darasa

Darasa means “he studied”. Now let’s add a shaddah to this word:

دَرَّسَ

dar-rasa

Darrasa means “he taught”. Very simple, very big difference. One more example.

The sentence:

بَكى صَبِيٌّ

bakaa sabiy-yun

This sentence means “a boy cried”.

Adding another two shaddah causes two things, letters alif and laam to be added making the boy an object being pointed to, and the meaning to change.

Note:

بَكَّى الصَّبِيُّ

bak-kaa al-sabiy-yu

Which means “[he] made the boy cry”.

Later you will come to realise that not only do diacritics change the meaning of things, but so does the pronunciation of a letter.

As for Tajweed, just remember shaddah + meem or noon = ghunnah.

Resources Link:

–Shaddah [Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: page 2]

[Gatway To Arabic: page 49]

–Ghunnah [Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: page 2]

-Diacritics [Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: page 4]

Practicing diacritics exercises up to page 6

[Gateway To Arabic: pages 21 – 24]

-Tajweed Rule [Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: first half page 10]

Note, these documents are found on the resources page.

… ارخيلا بتنرخا

Al-Noon Al-Saakinah: rule four

December 7, 2010June 1, 2011 tajweed me2 Comments

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merging colours

Merging things together can be heaps of fun. I tend to enjoy combining colours together to create new, fascinating ones. The fourth rule for Al-Noon Al-Saakinah is all about merging/combining. This rule is said to be one of the most complicated rules. But there is nothing to fret about because practice makes perfect, insha Allah.

Rule four: Al-Idghaam — Al-Idkhaal (To merge with)

There are two types of Idghaam. and from these two, a couple more branch out. Take a look at the diagram below:

So what does all this mean?

Let’s start with what ghunnah means.

Ghunnah: A ghunnah is the sound made entirely by the nose [this is in regards to the sounds coming from the mouth].

An Idghaam bi ghunnah occurs with any Tanween or Noon Saakinah if it is followed by any of these letters:

ي ن م و

waw meem noon yaa

This completes the first level of the diagram when following the rightmost arrow.

Merging without ghunnah, i.e. Idghaam bila ghunnah occurs when the letters

ل ر

raa laam

follow a Noon Saakinah or Tanween. Now the leftmost arrow of the first level of the diagram is complete. [i.e. the entire first level is now complete].

With these two letters, raa and laam, their idghaam is called: idghaam bila ghunnah kaamel, or in English, merging without ghunnah fully.

Here the “nn” sound from the Tanween or Noon Saakinah is completely eliminated and the laam or raa are said straight away without any emphasis on their sounds. Hence why the “fully” is added onto the end – i.e. noting that the “nn” sound is “fully” wiped out.

Examples of idghaam bila ghunnah kaamel / merging without ghunnah fully:

waylun likulli humazatin lumazah

The two “n” I have in red are completely eliminated and so the verse is read as,

waylulikulli humazatilumaza

Notice the two green letters are now the place where the two words are connected without the Tanween. Some students [and I know quite a few] have trouble in the beginning trying to connect two words without the “nn” sound in between. They end up “leaning on” the laam or raa and saying them as though there is a shaddah^[1] on these two letters. However there isn’t.

But here you may protest that in fact there is. Look at the example above. There is a shaddah on the laam in both cases for the words likulli and lumazah. This shaddah is not there for shaddah purposes. It has been put there as a notice to the reader that the Tanween (or Noon Saakinah) is not to be pronounced at all, not even through the nasal passage.

Below is a second example using a Noon Saakinah.

min rabbi read as, mir-rabbi

While I still have your attention [I hope], and avoiding any confusion possible, insha Allah, I’ll continue on with the rightmost arrow, merging with ghunnah.

Recall that a ghunnah is a sound made entirely by the nose [nasalisation], somewhere between a hum and a moan. Like an aeroplane engine, probably. The merging with ghunnah letters as above have two categories. “Full” and “lesser”. Full idghaam means that this aeroplane humming comes through sounding a lot stronger than it would when the lesser one is made. The letters,

ن م

meem noon

coincide with a full idgham bi ghunnah, where as the remaining letters,

ي و

waw yaa

are to be said with a “lesser idgham bi ghunnah“. Idgham bi ghunnah, whether fuller or lesser is sounded for two counts, similar to the time it takes to say the words, “one – two”.

Examples of a full idghaam bi ghunnah:

____________

rasoolun min min marqadinaa

min maarijen min naaren

(3 occurrences of a fuller idghaam bi ghunnah)

note: min maarij – maarijen min – min naar

Examples of lesser idghaam bi ghunnah:

dalaalatun walaakinni

min yawmihem

Examples of idghaam bila ghunnah kaamel:

bideenaaren la

fawaylun lillatheena

Notice here the shaddah on the first laam is to note the ruling of idghaam bila ghunnah kaamel. The second shaddah however is there for shaddah purposes. You are to “double” the sound of the second laam so it is said as I’ve written above, lil-latheena.

Idghaam is something I find very beautiful. It’s adds a tremendous tone to recitation and I think it, alongside the rule regarding noon and meem mushadadah, adds a very serene and tranquil sensation for the both listener and reader.

What’s that rule I just mentioned? Keep an eye out for new posts.

Resources Link:

–Shaddah [Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: page 2]

[Gatway To Arabic: page 49]

–Idghaam [Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: page 12]

–Tanween [Gatway To Arabic: pages 40-43]

–Sukoon [Gatway To Arabic: page 48]

^[1] – Shaddah: is to double the sound of a letter so that it is stressed. Such a letter is said to be mushaddad.

Al-Noon Al-Saakinah: rule three

December 5, 2010October 24, 2011 tajweed me2 Comments

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Allahuma ya muqaliba al-quloob thabit qalbi ‘ala deenika

اللهم يا مُقلِّبَ القُلوب … ثبتْ قَلبي على دينكَ

Rule Three: Iqlaab — Tahweel Al-shay’ ‘an wajh (Flipping).

After every Noon Saakinah or Tanween, if the letter baa (ب) follows, the sound must be flipped [i.e. changed] to the sound of the letter meem (م). This is represented by a little meem on top of the letter itself as pictured below:

The lips should not be entirely pressed together, to allow for the meem to come through the nasal passage as well. The mouth should be prepared to say the baa after sounding through the meem. So the above, min b‘ad is sounds like mimm b‘ad when read. What ever you do, take this piece of advice and do not get mixed up between the full shaped meem (م) drawn above letters to indicate iqlaab, and the cut meem (مـ) to indicated a compulsory stop. Refer to the resources link below. Iqlaab must be sounded for two counts, i.e. the time it takes to say the words, “one – two”.

Examples of the third rule are as follow:

example one: min b‘ad – منْ بَعْدِ

example two: layunbathanna – لَيُنْبِذَنَّ

example three: samee‘an baseeran – سَمِيعَاً بَصِيراً

Resources Link:

– Sukoon [Gateway to Arabic, page 48]

– Rules of stopping [Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: page 15]

– Tanween [Gateway to Arabic: page 40]

[Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: pages 11 – 14]

More about the Arabic letters can be found here: http://www.meem.freeuk.com/ scroll down to the “ABJAD TABLE” and select a letter.

اللهم يا مُقلِّبَ القلوب ثبتْ قلبي على دينك

Al-Noon Al-Saakinah: rule two

December 4, 2010April 7, 2012 tajweed meLeave a comment

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The following is rule two of four for the Noon Al-Saakinah/Tanween.

We all know the children’s game, hide and seek. Here, the Noon Al-Saakinah must be hidden [i.e. not pronounced clearly]. Read on.

Hide And Seek

Rule Two: Ikhfaa — Al-sitr (where the Noon/Tanween is not pronounced clearly, i.e. is hidden).

The first rule listed six letters that follow the noon al-saakinah. In that case, it must be pronounced clearly. Of the remaining letters in the Arabic alphabet, the second rule, ikhfaa applies.

The letters which are covered in rules three and four, are the exception to this rule.

These letters are:

ب و م ن ي ر ل

laam raa yaa noon meem waa baa

When one of the remaining letters follows a noon saakinah or tanween, ikhfaa must be done. This is when the noon saakinah or tanween is hidden in the nose. Here, the mouth is to be shaped in a manner such that it is “prepared” for the next letter. For example, if the next letter is a taa with a dhammah then the mouth is prepared to say this by changing it into a small “o” shape, and the tongue positions itself in the right place within the mouth^[2]. This can occur across two words or be contained in one.

Ikhfaa must be sounded for two counts, i.e. the time it takes to say the words, “one – two”.

Examples of the second rule are as follow:

example one: min qabl – منْ قبلِ

example two: kitaabun kareem – كِتابٌ كريم

example three: antum – أنْتم

It is not necessary that you learn all these letters. It is however advised that you learn the 6 ith-haar, and 7 exception, letters and so when reading, just do a quick check to see if the letter is not one of the 6 ith-haar letters, or the exception letters above, then do ikhfaa. This takes a while to get used to, and soon you’ll forget you even have to do a check because you internalise it.

Besides, it’d be almost the impossible to try and bring out an “nn” sound from your nasal passage when needing to shape your mouth for a “h” sound for haa, or an “a” sound for alif.

Resources Link:

– Sukoon [Gateway to Arabic, page 48]

– Makhaarij Al-Huroof

^[1] – More about the Arabic letters can be found here: http://www.meem.freeuk.com/ scroll down to the “ABJAD TABLE” and select a letter.
^[2] – Refer to the document Makhaarij Al-Huroof under the resources page.

Al-Noon Al-Saakinah: rule one

December 3, 2010September 16, 2011 tajweed me4 Comments

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As per people, letters are different. You find some people are quiet, other are loud. But regardless of this, there are places when even the loud ones must be quiet! Take for example, the library or art gallery.

Quiet Zone

In Tajweed there are rules regarding the silent noon^[1]. This is known as “Al-Noon Al-Saakinah” in Arabic. The rules regarding the silent noon also apply to tanween ^[2].

Rule One: Ith-haar Al-Bayan (where the noon/tanween is pronounced clearly).

It’s pronounced clearly only when the following is true:

The noon has a sukoon^[3] on it (نْ) and one of the following letters come after it (whether in the same word or following one)^[4]:

alif, haa, khaa, ayn, ghayn, haa

هـ غ ع خ ح أ

Note this also applies for the Tanween.

Examples of this are as follow:

example one: hakeemin hameed–حكيمٍ حميد

example two: an aqeemoo – أنْ أقيموا

Please note that I have put up very beneficial documents under the “resources” page. I hope these are of benefit.

Resources Link:

– Tanween [Gateway to Arabic: page 40]

[Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: pages 11 – 14]

– Sukoon [Gateway to Arabic: page 48]

^[1] – noon: the 25^th Arabic letter, that makes a “n” sound, such as in the words, “n”ear, “n”or, A”nn”. The letter in arabic is written as ن

An interesting website all about the letter noon is here: http://www.meem.freeuk.com/Noon.html

^[2] – The tanween is an “n” sound added to the end of the word in certain circumstances, usually it functions just like the “a” and “an” in English, indicating an indefinite article. The word tanween, usually translated as “nunation”, means “to ‘n'”, or “‘n’ing”, making an “n” sound. There are three types of tanween:

1- fat-ha tanween
2 – kasra tanween
3 – damma tanween

fat-ha tanween: The fat-ha tanween is pronounced “an”, as in “animal”.

kasra tanween: The kasra tanween is pronouced “in”, as in “in”, “tin”, “fin”, etc. Some native Arabic speakers might indicate a kasra tanween with an “en”, thinking that “e” sounds like the Arabic “yaa” letter. This is a mistake that stems from not knowing how native English speakers pronounce the “e” sound.

damma tanween: The dhamma tanween is pronounced as a short “oo” followed by an “n”. This sounds like the short “un” in “uno”, not like the long “oon” in “soon”.

tanween at the end of a sentence: If the tanween is the last thing in the sentence, it’s not pronounced. In the case of a fat-ha tanween, the alif is pronounced as a long vowel.

^[3] – More about sukoon can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_diacritics#Suk.C5.ABn

^[4] – More about these letters can be found here: http://www.meem.freeuk.com/ scroll down to the “ABJAD TABLE” and select one of the abovementioned letters to learn more about it.

Tajweed: The Foundations

December 2, 2010June 1, 2011 tajweed me5 Comments

NOTE: if you are new to the website, please click here for a brief guide.

Tajweed is to give every letter it’s right and pronounce it from the correct place in the mouth/nose/throat. The word itself means “to make better”

In Tajweed there is “fard kifaayah“^[1], where not all people must know a certain rule. Example of this in Islam is the prayer of the dead. “Fard ayn“^[2] is compulsory for all Muslims to do/learn, i.e. reading with Tajweed .

There are three types of reading:

1- Al-tahqeeq: where Quran is read very slowly with Tajweed
2 – Al-tadweer: where Quran is read at a medium pace with Tajweed
3 – Al-hadr: where Quran is read quickly with Tajweed

Resources Link:

– Tajweed Basics: Foundations and More: pages 1 – 3 and midway of page 4

^[1] – Sufficiency duty or fard al-kifaya (الواجب الكفائي‎) is a duty which is imposed on the whole community of believers (ummah). The classic example for it is jihad: the individual is not required to perform it as long as a sufficient number of community members fulfil it.
^[2] – Individual duty or fard al-ayn (الواجب العين) relates to tasks every Muslim is required to perform, such as daily prayer (salah), hijab, or the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime (hajj).

Tajweed Me

All for Quran & Tajweed

Month: December 2010

Al-Meem Al-Saakinah: rule three

Al-Meem Al-Saakinah: rule two

Al-Meem Al-Saakinah: rule one

Noon and Meem Mushaddadah

Al-Noon Al-Saakinah: rule four

Al-Noon Al-Saakinah: rule three

Al-Noon Al-Saakinah: rule two

Al-Noon Al-Saakinah: rule one

Tajweed: The Foundations