My TijarahThe UltimateTajweedCheat Sheet
Every rule of Hafs on one desk, from themakharij to the exceptions.
What is inside
Contents
Keep this beside the mushaf and turn to whatever you are getting wrong. Most readers need three or four of these pages, not all twenty five. Page 23 is the whole book on one sheet. Page 24 sets out six weeks of work if you want an order to follow.
Part one: the letters
- The five zones of the mouth01
- The seventeen points02
- The twenty nine letters, and the English traps03
- The twenty nine letters, continued04
- The sifaat that come in pairs05
- The seven that stand alone06
- Heavy and light07
- The seven confusions that change the meaning08
Part two: the rules
- Noon sakinah and tanween09
- The fifteen letters of ikhfa10
- Meem sakinah11
- Ghunnah and qalqalah12
- The madd, mapped13
- The madd, every kind and its count14
- The compulsory madd and the opening letters15
- The five lams16
- Ra, heavy and light17
Part three: reading it
- The stopping signs in your mushaf18
- How to stop19
- How to start20
- What Hafs alone carries21
- The twelve mistakes that give you away22
- The whole thing on one page23
- Six weeks24
- Notes and sources25
Part one
The letters, before any rule
You can know all four rules of noon sakinah and still say ك where the ayah has ق. Most adults who recite poorly do it for that reason, so the letters have to come before the rules.
The five zones
Where sound is made, from the throat to the lips
The seventeen points
Every letter placed exactly
The twenty nine letters
And the trap English sets on each one
The sifaat
What a letter does once it has a place
Heavy and light
The seven that rise, and the three that depend
The confusions
Where one letter changes what the ayah says
Makharij al-huruf
The five zones of the mouth
Seventeen points in all, grouped in five zones. Learn the zones first and the points come easily after them. If you cannot place a letter you will approximate it, and your approximation will be some other letter.
The hollow of the mouth and throat, where nothing touches anything. It holds only the three madd letters, which is why a madd has no place you can point to.
Six letters in three pairs, working outward from the chest. Four of the six have no counterpart in English at all, which is where most readers lose most.
Eighteen letters, from the back of the tongue to its tip against the teeth. Six of the ten points sit within a couple of millimetres of each other.
The lower lip against the upper teeth for ف. Both lips for the rest: shut for ب and م, rounded and open for و.
The only point with no letter of its own. It carries the ghunnah, and it is the reason a blocked nose ruins a recitation.
Makharij al-huruf
The seventeen points, in order
Ibn al-Jazari’s order, working outward from the chest end of the throat to the lips, and last the nose.
| # | Zone | Where exactly | Letters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Space | The empty space of the mouth and throat. No contact anywhere. | ا و ي |
| 2 | Throat | Deepest part of the throat, at the chest end. | ء ه |
| 3 | Throat | Middle of the throat. | ع ح |
| 4 | Throat | Nearest part of the throat, at the mouth end. | غ خ |
| 5 | Tongue | Deepest part of the tongue against the soft palate above it. | ق |
| 6 | Tongue | Same place, a little further forward, against the hard palate. | ك |
| 7 | Tongue | Middle of the tongue against the palate above it. | ج ش ي |
| 8 | Tongue | Either edge of the tongue against the upper molars. The left side is easier for most. | ض |
| 9 | Tongue | The edges nearest the tip, against the gum of the upper front teeth. | ل |
| 10 | Tongue | Tip of the tongue against that same gum, a shade lower. | ن |
| 11 | Tongue | Tip again, with a little of its back, closer still to the palate. | ر |
| 12 | Tongue | Tip against the roots of the upper two front teeth. | ط د ت |
| 13 | Tongue | Tip against the tips of the lower two front teeth. | ص س ز |
| 14 | Tongue | Tip against the tips of the upper two front teeth. | ظ ذ ث |
| 15 | Lips | Inside of the lower lip against the tips of the upper front teeth. | ف |
| 16 | Lips | Both lips. Closed for ب and م, rounded and open for و. | ب م و |
| 17 | Nose | The nasal passage. It has no letter of its own, only the ghunnah. | the ghunnah only |
The alphabet
The twenty nine letters, and the trap on each
The number under each letter is its point from page 2. A filled box means always heavy, an outline means always light, a split box means the weight is decided by rule. The note under each one is the mistake an English speaking mouth makes on its own.
2
Deepest throat
Letting it slide away between two vowels. It is a full stop of the throat, closed and released.
16
Both lips, closed
A puff of air after it. There is none. When it carries a sukoon it bounces instead.
12
Tip at the tooth roots
Making it on the ridge behind the teeth, where the English t lives. Come forward to the roots of the teeth.
14
Tip at the tooth tips
Turning it into س. The tip has to show between the teeth, as in the English word think.
7
Middle of the tongue
The English j, which begins with a d. Press the whole middle of the tongue flat to the palate and release it once.
3
Middle of the throat
Reading it as ه. ح is narrowed and hot in the middle of the throat, ه is open and soft at the bottom of it.
4
Nearest throat
Pulling it back into the ح position. It sits at the top of the throat, as in the Scottish loch.
12
Tip at the tooth roots
The English d, made further back. Come forward, and let it bounce when it carries a sukoon.
14
Tip at the tooth tips
Turning it into ز or د. It is the sound in the English word this, with the tip showing.
11
Tip near the gum
Rolling it. One tap only, never a trill, and its weight is set by the rule on page 17, never by habit.
13
Tip near the lower teeth
Reading it as ذ. The tip stays behind the teeth and the sound whistles.
13
Tip near the lower teeth
Letting a heavy neighbour drag it up. س stays thin next to ط and ق and everything else.
7
Middle of the tongue
Cutting it short. The air spreads across the whole mouth, which is why it is called tafashshi.
13
Tip near the lower teeth
Reading it as س. Same tip position, but the back of the tongue rises and the mouth fills.
8
Edge of the tongue at the molars
Reading it as د or ظ. It starts at the molars and runs forward, which no other letter does.
The alphabet
The twenty nine letters, continued
Alif closes the list rather than opening it, because it is not really a consonant. It touches nothing anywhere, it always follows a fathah, and it takes its weight from whatever came before it.
12
Tip at the tooth roots
The aspirated English t. ط releases no breath at all. It is heavy, voiced, and it bounces when sakin.
14
Tip at the tooth tips
Reading it as ز or ض. It is ذ with the back of the tongue raised, tip still showing.
3
Middle of the throat
Softening it to a hamzah or to nothing at all. عَلِيم and أَلِيم are two different words.
4
Nearest throat
Flattening it to a light g. It gargles at the top of the throat and it is always heavy.
15
Lower lip at the teeth
Biting the lip hard. The contact is light, and it never doubles into a stop.
5
Deepest tongue
Reading it as ك. قَلْب is a heart, كَلْب is a dog. It is made far back and it is heavy.
6
Tongue, just forward of ق
Making it heavy beside a heavy letter. ك is light in every word in the Book.
9
Edges near the tip at the gum
The dark English l of full and milk. Arabic ل is light everywhere except the name اللَّه after a fathah or a dammah.
16
Both lips, closed
Not closing the lips fully on a sakin meem, which turns the ghunnah into a hum with a gap in it.
10
Tip at the gum
Nasalising it everywhere. A clear noon has only the ghunnah built into the letter, not a held hum.
2
Deepest throat
Losing it at the end of a word. It is a real letter and it needs real breath, especially in فِيهِ and بِهِ.
16
Both lips, rounded
Confusing its two jobs. Rounded lips when it is a consonant, the open jawf when it is a madd.
7
Middle of the tongue
The same two jobs. Middle of the tongue as a consonant, the open jawf as a madd.
1
The open jawf
Giving it a weight of its own. Alif has none. It takes the weight of the letter before it.
The one habit worth breaking first
English pushes a puff of air out after p, t and k. Try it: hold a sheet of paper in front of your mouth and say the English word top. It moves twice. Now say طَ and بَ and دَ and جَ and قَ. The paper should not move at all. These five hold breath and voice together, and that is exactly why they are the five that bounce.
Sifat al-huruf
The qualities that come in pairs
A makhraj tells you where a letter is made, a sifah what happens once you are there. Five of them come in opposing pairs, and each letter sits on one side of every pair. ت and ط share a point in the mouth and differ on three of these five, which is the whole of what separates them.
The voice runs and the breath is held back.
every letter not in the hams list
The breath runs on after the letter.
ف ح ث ه ش خ ص س ك تThe sound stops dead. Nothing can be held.
ء ج د ق ط ب ك تThe sound runs on as long as you have breath.
the remaining sixteen
The back of the tongue rises. The letter is heavy.
خ ص ض غ ط ق ظThe tongue stays down. The letter is light.
the remaining twenty two
The tongue clamps flat against the roof of the mouth.
ص ض ط ظA gap stays open between tongue and palate.
the remaining twenty five
Light on the tongue tip or the lips, quick to say.
ف ر م ن ل بHeavier in the mouth, slower to say.
the remaining twenty three
How the lists are actually held
Hams, 10
So a person urged him on, then fell silent
Shiddah, 8
I find a cat that wept
Tawassut, 5
Be gentle, Umar
Isti'la, 7
Singled out by pressure, endure the summer
Idhlaq, 6
Flee from the core
Qalqalah, 5
The pole of earnestness
Sifat al-huruf
The seven that stand alone
These seven have no opposite, and each belongs to a handful of letters. A listener knows which letter you said from these, even when the rest of the word is lost. Six of them you produce. Takrir you avoid, which is why it was named at all.
Safir
A whistle. The air runs through a narrow channel at the teeth, and you should hear it.
Qalqalah
A bounce. These five hold both breath and voice, so a sukoon on them has to be released with a small echo.
Leen
Softness. Only when they are sakin and the letter before carries a fathah, as in خَوْف and بَيْت.
Inhiraf
The sound leans off its own point towards another, which is why idgham reaches for these two.
Takrir
The tip trembles. Named so you can avoid it: learn where it happens, then let it happen once.
Tafashshi
The air spreads out across the whole mouth rather than staying in a narrow channel.
Istitalah
The sound runs the length of the tongue, from the molars forward. It is what separates ض from د.
Tafkheem and tarqeeq
Heavy and light
Seven letters are heavy wherever they fall, three change by rule, and the other nineteen stay light whatever sits beside them. Readers break that third one constantly, letting a light letter pick up the weight of the heavy letter next to it.
Always heavy
خ ص ض غ ط ق ظThe letters of isti’la, held in خُصَّ ضَغْطٍ قِظْ. Four of them also clamp the tongue flat and are heavier still.
Heavy by rule
ا ل رAlif follows the letter before it. Lam is heavy only in the Name ٱللَّه after a fathah or a dammah. Ra has a rule of its own on page 17.
Always light
ء ب ت ث ج ح د ذ ز س ش ع ف ك م ن ه و يNineteen letters that never rise, in any word, beside any neighbour.
Heaviness has grades
Heaviness has grades. Ibn al-Jazari counted five of them, set by the vowel the letter carries. Below is one qaf, five times.
he said
he killed
say
he kills
it was said
Where it matters most
One letter, a different ayah
Both words in each pair below are in the Qur’an. The letter is all that separates them.
a heart
Qaf 37
a dog
A'raf 176
ق is made at the very back of the tongue and is heavy. ك is a shade forward and is light.
All Knowing
Baqarah 32
painful
Nuh 1
ع is voiced in the middle of the throat. Let it soften and you have named a punishment instead of an attribute of Allah.
he went astray
Isra 67
he remained
Nahl 58
ض starts at the molars and runs forward. ظ is at the tips of the front teeth, with the tongue raised.
he repented
Baqarah 37
it was good
Nisa 3
Same point in the mouth. ت is light and lets the breath out, ط is heavy and lets none out at all.
And three that make no word at all
ح read as ه
الرَّحْمَٰنThe throat opens where it should narrow, and the Name is not said.
ص read as س
الصِّرَاطThe tongue stays flat, the mouth stays thin, and a heavy letter is lost.
ض read as د
وَلَا الضَّآلِّينَThe oldest warning in the books of tajweed, and still the commonest.
Two harakat that reverse the sentence
As revealed. You bestowed favour upon them, addressed to Allah.
Say أَنْعَمْتُ instead. I bestowed favour upon them, spoken by the reciter about himself.
As revealed. It is only the people of knowledge, among His servants, who fear Allah.
Say ٱللَّهُ instead. Reverses subject and object, so that the sentence says the opposite.
Part two
The rules, and what your mouth does
You will not be thinking about any of this while you recite. Each rule describes what the mouth does anyway when two sounds meet at speed. Say the examples aloud as you go. Reading them silently will teach you nothing.
Noon sakinah and tanween
Four rules, twenty nine letters, one chart
Meem sakinah
Three rules, and the two that blur
Ghunnah and qalqalah
The nose, and the bounce
The madd
Every kind, and what it counts to
Lam and ra
Where fluent readers are still wrong
Ahkam an-noon as-sakinah
Noon sakinah and tanween
A noon with a sukoon and a tanween behave the same way, since a tanween is a noon sakinah you hear but do not write. The letter that follows decides between five answers.
Say the noon plainly, from its own point, with no nasal hold and no join. The six are the throat letters, too far from the noon to merge with it.
Let the noon disappear into the next letter, which doubles, and hold the nose for two counts. The four are collected in the word يَنْمُو.
The noon disappears completely and nothing at all is held in the nose. Move straight into the doubled letter.
Turn the noon into a meem, close the lips lightly without pressing, and hold the nose two counts. Your mushaf prints a small meem above the noon to mark it.
Al-ikhfa al-haqiqi
The fifteen letters of ikhfa
Between the two. Your tongue never touches the noon point. The mouth is already shaped for the letter coming next while the nose holds two counts.
Al-Jamzuri, Tuhfat al-Atfal
صِفْ ذَا ثَنَا كَمْ جَادَ شَخْصٌ قَدْ سَمَادُمْ طَيِّبًا زِدْ فِي تُقًى ضَعْ ظَالِمَاFifteen words, each starting with one of the fifteen letters. Learn the line and the letters come with it. As a bare list they are much harder work.
Three grades, by how near the letter is
Ikhfa is a blend, so how much of it you hear depends on how near the coming letter sits to the noon’s own point. The nearer it is, the more the noon hides; the further, the more it leans towards a clear noon.
Nearest to the noon point, so the ikhfa is at its strongest and the ghunnah at its shortest.
The ten in between. Ordinary ikhfa, two counts.
Furthest from the noon point, so the ikhfa is at its weakest and comes closest to izhar.
Ahkam al-meem as-sakinah
Meem sakinah
Easier than the noon. Three rules, and again the following letter decides. All three are called shafawi, of the lips, since a meem is made at the lips and so is the letter that changes it.
Let the lips meet, barely, with no pressure, and hold the nose two counts.
A meem into a meem. The two become one doubled letter, and the nose holds two counts.
Close the lips fully and say the meem plainly. Watch ف and و hardest, because the lips are already near their place and the meem tends to blur.
The other meem and noon rule
A meem or noon carrying a shaddah is a rule in itself, and the shortest one you will ever learn: hold the ghunnah two counts, every time, wherever it falls, whether you read on or stop on it.
Ghunnah and qalqalah
The nose, and the bounce
Ghunnah
A sound made in the nasal passage, the seventeenth point. It belongs to ن and م, and it runs for two counts. Pinch your nose and say إِنَّ. If nothing changes, you were not making one.
A noon or meem carrying a shaddah. The fullest ghunnah there is.
Idgham with ghunnah, and idgham of a meem into a meem.
Ikhfa, and iqlab, and ikhfa shafawi.
Izhar. Only the ghunnah built into the letter itself.
The least of all. Nothing is held.
Ash-Shatibi counted the first three only, most later writers count five. They describe the same sound and ask the same thing of you. The hold is two counts.
Qalqalah
Five letters, held in قُطْبُ جَدٍّ, that stop the sound and voice it at once. Nothing escapes, so a sukoon on them needs releasing with a small echo. The echo carries no vowel of its own. قَدْ is neither qad-a nor qad-i; the letter bounces and stops.
Al-madd wal-qasr
The madd, mapped
Three madd letters and no others: an alif after a fathah, a waw with a sukoon after a dammah, a ya with a sukoon after a kasrah. How long you hold one depends on what stands behind it.
Which count to choose
For Hafs by the way of the Shatibiyyah, the joined and separated madd are both four counts or both five. Four is steadier, and most readers are taught it. Take five for the separated madd and you cannot then take four for the joined one, which is the obligatory of the two.
Where two counts comes from
Reciters you hear at two counts on the separated madd are reading Hafs as well, by the way of the Tayyibah rather than the Shatibiyyah. Both routes are sound. Stay inside one of them for the length of a sitting.
Al-madd wal-qasr
Every kind, and what it counts to
| Name | What sets it off | Counts | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
المَدّ الطَّبِيعِيTabeeʼi, the natural madd | A madd letter with no hamzah and no sukoon after it. | 2 | قَالُوا۟everywhere |
مَدّ البَدَلBadal | A hamzah comes first and the madd letter follows it. | 2 | ءَامَنُوا۟Hafs does not lengthen this |
مَدّ العِوَضIwad | You stop on a word ending in tanween with a fathah. The tanween becomes an alif. | 2 | عَلِيمًا ← عَلِيمَاon stopping only |
مَدّ الصِّلَة الصُّغْرَىSilah sughra | The ha of the pronoun between two voweled letters, with no hamzah after. | 2 | إِنَّهُۥ كَانَIsra 1 |
مَدّ التَّمْكِينTamkeen | A doubled ya followed by a sakin ya, so the sound is given room to settle. | 2 | ٱلنَّبِيِّـۧنَBaqarah 61 |
المَدّ المُتَّصِلMuttasil, the joined madd | A hamzah follows the madd letter inside the same word. | 4 or 5 | وَٱلسَّمَآءَBaqarah 22 |
المَدّ المُنْفَصِلMunfasil, the separated madd | The madd letter ends one word and a hamzah begins the next. | 4 or 5 | يَـٰٓأَيُّهَاNisa 1 |
مَدّ الصِّلَة الكُبْرَىSilah kubra | The ha of the pronoun with a hamzah after it. It follows the munfasil. | 4 or 5 | عِندَهُۥٓ إِلَّاBaqarah 255 |
المَدّ العَارِض لِلسُّكُونAarid lis-sukoon | A madd letter, then a letter whose sukoon exists only because you stopped. | 2, 4 or 6 | ٱلرَّحِيمْstopping on Fatihah 3 |
مَدّ اللِّينLeen | A sakin و or ي after a fathah, then a letter made sakin by your stop. | 2, 4 or 6 | قُرَيْشْstopping on Quraysh 1 |
المَدّ اللَّازِمLazim, the compulsory madd | A madd letter followed by a sukoon that is part of the word itself, not of your stop. | 6 | وَلَا ٱلضَّآلِّينَFatihah 7 |
مَدّ الفَرْقFarq, the madd that asks | A question hamzah on a word that already begins with al. The madd is what tells a listener it is a question. | 6 | ءَآللَّهُNaml 59 |
The first five
All natural. Two counts, nothing to decide, and most of the madd on any page.
The middle three
A hamzah is behind it. Four counts or five, and the same choice all sitting.
The last four
A sukoon is behind it. Yours, from stopping, and you choose. The word’s own, and it is six.
Al-madd al-lazim
The compulsory madd, and the opening letters
Six counts, for every reciter in every reading, with no choice in it. You have one whenever the letter after the madd carries a sukoon belonging to the word itself rather than one your stopping produced.
In a word, and the letter after the madd carries a shaddah.
In a word, and the letter after the madd is plainly sakin. One word in the whole Qur’an, in two places.
In an opening letter, and that letter merges into the one after it.
In an opening letter, and nothing merges.
The opening letters
Twenty nine surahs open with letters read one at a time, by name, and fourteen letters are used in all. How long you hold each depends on how its own name is spelled, which looks arbitrary until you see it laid out.
| Group | Letters | Counts | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| No madd at all | ا | 0 | Alif on its own is said as the three letters أَلِف, and none of them is a madd letter. |
| Two counts | ح ي ط ه ر | 2 | Collected as حَيٌّ طَهُرْ. Each is spelled with two letters, so the madd inside is only natural. |
| Six counts | ن ق ص س ل ك م | 6 | The seven in نَقَصَ عَسَلُكُمْ apart from the ayn. Each is spelled with three letters and a madd in the middle. |
| Four or six | ع | 4 or 6 | Its middle letter is a leen, not a madd, so it takes less. Six is the stronger of the two ways. |
Ahkam al-lam
The five lams
Lam is light in every word of the Qur’an except one, the Name of Allah. The rest of this page is about whether you pronounce the lam at all, which trips readers up far more often.
Lam of al, qamariyyah
Fourteen letters, collected as ٱبْغِ حَجَّكَ وَخَفْ عَقِيمَهْ. The lam is said plainly and carries a sukoon.
Lam of al, shamsiyyah
The other fourteen. The lam is not pronounced at all. The letter after it takes a shaddah and you go straight to it.
Lam of a verb
Said plainly, except before ل and ر, where it merges.
Lam of a particle
Only in هَلْ and بَلْ. Said plainly, except before ل and ر, where it merges. One famous exception is on page 21.
Lam inside a noun
Always said plainly and always light, wherever it falls.
The fourteen moon letters
ٱبْغِ حَجَّكَ وَخَفْ عَقِيمَهْEach word begins with one of them. Before these fourteen the lam is heard.
The fourteen sun letters
ت ث د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ل نEverything else. Before these the lam is silent and the next letter doubles.
The lam of the Name
Heavy
After a fathah, after a dammah, or when you begin with the Name itself.
Light
After a kasrah, whether the kasrah belongs to the word or arrives from a join.
Ahkam ar-ra
Ra, heavy and light
Ra is the letter fluent readers get wrong. Its weight is settled afresh in each word, so ask three things in order: what the ra carries, then what came before it, then what follows.
The words where both are read
Part three
Where to stop, and how to begin again
Ibn al-Jazari records the definition reciters have used ever since: tarteel is giving the letters their due and knowing where to stop. Half of that has nothing to do with your mouth. It is knowing where a sentence ends, and few teachers spend any time on it.
The signs in your mushaf
What each one obliges
How to stop
Sukoon, rawm, ishmam, and what changes
How to start
The hamzah you do not read, and the one you do
What Hafs alone carries
Every exception, in one place
The twelve mistakes
And the whole book on a single sheet
Al-waqf wal-ibtida
The signs in your mushaf
These marks are not part of the revealed text. Scholars of waqf and ibtida added them to keep you from stopping where the meaning breaks. They bind you less tightly than most readers assume: islamweb states that no waqf in the Qur’an is obligatory and none forbidden, except where there is a reason for it. Go by the meaning.
| Sign | Name | What it obliges |
|---|---|---|
| ۘ | Waqf lazimمـ | Stop here. Reading on ties two clauses together in a way the meaning will not bear. |
| ۙ | La waqfلا | Better not to stop. It marks an unfinished sentence rather than a prohibition, and at the end of an ayah you may still stop. |
| ۚ | Waqf jaizج | Stop or read on. The two are equal. |
| ۖ | Al-wasl awlaصلى | You may stop, but reading on is better. |
| ۗ | Al-waqf awlaقلى | You may read on, but stopping is better. |
| ۛ ۛ | Mu'anaqah∴ | Printed twice, a few words apart. Stop at one of the two, never at both and never at neither. |
| ۜ | Saktahس | A short silence with no breath taken. Four places in Hafs, all listed on page 21. |
Stopping by choice
The books name four grades: tamm, a complete stop with nothing left hanging; kafi, complete in wording but connected in meaning; hasan, good in itself but needing you to go back before you start again; and qabih, where stopping damages the sense. The signs above are a printed shorthand for these.
Stopping without choice
Running out of breath, a cough, a sneeze, losing your place. This is idtirari, and it is allowed anywhere at all, including mid clause. Stop, breathe, then start again from the beginning of that clause rather than from the word you stopped on.
Al-waqf
How to stop
When you stop, you drop the vowel the last letter was carrying. Three ways to do that, and the vowel you are dropping decides which of them are open to you.
Drop the final vowel and close the letter. This is what stopping means, and after a fathah it is your only choice.
Sound about a third of the vowel, quietly, so someone sitting near you can still hear which vowel it was.
Close the letter in silence, then round the lips. This one is seen and not heard, so it is lost on a recording.
The rule in one line
A dammah gives you all three. A kasrah gives you sukoon and rawm. A fathah gives you sukoon and nothing else, for every reciter without exception.
What the last letter turns into
| When the word ends in | On stopping it becomes | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Tanween with a fathah | An alif of two counts | عَلِيمًا ← عَلِيمَا |
| Tanween with a dammah or a kasrah | Nothing. It falls away | غَفُورٌ ← غَفُورْ |
| Ta marbutah ة | A sakin ha | رَحْمَةً ← رَحْمَهْ |
| Ta maftuhah ت | A sakin ta, unchanged | رَحْمَتَ ← رَحْمَتْ |
| A madd before the last letter | Aarid lis-sukoon, two, four or six | نَسْتَعِينُ ← نَسْتَعِينْ |
| A doubled letter at the end | A single closed letter, and any qalqalah on it is at its strongest | بِٱلْحَقِّ ← بِٱلْحَقّْ |
Al-ibtida
How to start
Starting raises two questions: what you say before the first word, and what to do with a hamzah that exists only to get you started.
The isti’adhah and the basmalah
Say this before you begin, wherever in the Book you are starting. The basmalah follows it at the head of every surah except at-Tawbah.
Four ways to arrange the three pieces as you pass from one surah into the next. Three of them are read.
Hamzat al-wasl
Printed as a bare alif carrying a small sad, ٱ. While you are reading on it is not pronounced at all, which is why وَٱلْحَمْدُ is not wal-ilhamdu. But when you begin on it you have to supply a vowel yourself, and which one is not a matter of taste.
A verb
Look at the third letter. A dammah that belongs to the word means you begin with a dammah. A fathah or a kasrah means you begin with a kasrah.
A verb whose dammah is borrowed
Five verbs carry a dammah on the third letter that is not really theirs, so they begin with a kasrah.
A noun
Always a kasrah. Seven nouns in the language carry it, and every one of them appears in the Qur’an.
The definite article al
Always a fathah.
The exceptions
What Hafs alone carries
In each of these the general rule says one thing and the transmission says another. The transmission wins. An afternoon will fix the whole list, and a listener catches these faster than anything else in the book.
The four saktat
A saktah is a short silence with no breath taken, marked in your mushaf with a small seen, ۜ. Two of the four you can hear the reason for: without the silence the two words would merge into one.
Keeps قَيِّمًا from being heard as a description of the crookedness just denied.
Separates what the dead say from the answer given to them.
Without it the noon would merge into the ra and the two words would be heard as one.
The same reason. The lam would otherwise merge into the ra.
Two more are permitted rather than required: on مَالِيَهْ before هَلَكَ in al-Haqqah 28 to 29, and between al-Anfal and at-Tawbah if you join the two surahs.
Everything else
Ishmam
Yusuf 11
The one place in the Qur’an where the lips round in silence in the middle of a word, to show a dammah that the merging has swallowed.
Imalah
Hud 41
The one imalah Hafs reads. The fathah leans towards a kasrah and the alif towards a ya.
Tasheel
Fussilat 44
The second hamzah is eased, sounded between a hamzah and an alif rather than as either.
Idgham of ق into ك
Al-Mursalat 20
Complete. The qaf leaves nothing behind, not even its heaviness.
Idgham of ث into ذ
Al-A'raf 176
Complete, and one of the few places two neighbouring letters merge outside the noon rules.
Idgham of ب into م
Hud 42
Complete. The ba is gone and the meem doubles.
Idgham of ط into ت
Naml 22, Baqarah 247, Yusuf 80
Incomplete. The ta doubles but the clamp of the ta marbutah stays behind, so the heaviness is still heard.
Izhar where the rule says merge
Qalam 1, Ya Sin 1
A noon sakinah before a waw would normally merge. In these two places alone Hafs reads it plainly, with no ghunnah held.
Written with sad, read with seen
Baqarah 245, A’raf 69
A small seen printed above the sad. Where it sits above, read the seen.
Written with sad, read with sad
Tur 37, Ghashiyah 22
A small seen printed below the sad, or none at all. Where it sits below, read the sad.
Diagnosis
The twelve mistakes that give you away
Ranked by how much damage each does. The first six change the letter itself, and so can change what the ayah says. The last six leave the meaning alone, but they are how a teacher knows within half an ayah that nobody has sat and listened to you read.
A puff of air after ب د ج ق ط
These five hold breath and voice at once. English blows air after p, t and k, and the habit carries over. Release them into a bounce.
A vowel inside the bounce
Qalqalah is an echo of the letter, not a syllable. قَدْ is not qad-a and not qad-i.
ق read as ك
The commonest letter mistake there is. ق sits at the back of the tongue and is heavy. Say قَافْ then كَافْ, back and forth, until the two places feel different under your tongue.
ع softened towards a hamzah
ع is voiced, in the middle of the throat, and held a moment. Practise it inside a word rather than on its own: نَعْبُدُ first, then أَنْعَمْتَ.
ح read as ه
Both are breathed, but ح narrows the middle of the throat while ه leaves the bottom of it open. Put a hand on your throat and say حَ then هَ. You will feel the difference before you hear it.
ض read as د, or as ظ
It begins at the molars, on one side, and runs forward. No other letter does this. If your tongue tip leads, what you said was not a ض.
A dark English l
The l of full and milk pulls the back of your tongue up. Arabic ل is light in every word, with the single exception of the Name اللَّه after a fathah or a dammah.
Rolling the ر
One tap. Takrir is listed among the sifaat so you keep it to a single contact rather than perform it.
A light letter dragged heavy by its neighbour
The ر in ٱلصِّرَاطَ, the ت in ٱسْتَقَـٰمُوا۟, the س in مُّسْتَقِيمٍ. A heavy neighbour changes nothing about the letter beside it.
Ghunnah everywhere, or ghunnah nowhere
Two counts, and only where it belongs: doubled, merged or hidden. A clear noon holds none of it.
A madd that changes length line to line
Choose four counts or five for the joined and separated madd, then keep that choice for the whole sitting. Six belongs only to the compulsory madd.
Stopping for breath in the middle of a meaning
Stop if you run out of air. Breathe, then begin again from the start of that clause rather than the word you stopped on.
Print this one
The whole thing on one page
Hafs an Asim, by the Shatibiyyah
Noon sakinah and tanween
Meem sakinah
A doubled noon or meem: ghunnah of two counts, always.
The madd
Ra
Heavy on a fathah or dammah, sakin after a fathah or dammah, sakin after a borrowed kasrah, or sakin after a real kasrah with a heavy letter behind it.
Light on a kasrah, sakin after a real kasrah, or on stopping after a sakin ya or a kasrah.
Lam
Light everywhere. Heavy only in ٱللَّه after a fathah or a dammah. The lam of al is heard before the fourteen of ٱبْغِ حَجَّكَ وَخَفْ عَقِيمَهْ and silent before the other fourteen.
Qalqalah and the heavy seven
The signs
Stopping
Dammah: sukoon, rawm or ishmam. Kasrah: sukoon or rawm. Fathah: sukoon only. Tanween with a fathah becomes an alif of two counts. ة becomes a sakin ha. A doubled letter at the end is closed once, and any qalqalah on it is at its strongest.
How to use it
Six weeks, if you would rather be told
One thing a week, with a check at the end to tell you whether it landed. Ten minutes a day aloud will take you further than an hour on a Sunday.
The throat and the lips. Six letters carry most of the damage: ء ه ع ح غ خ, then ب م و ف.
Check. Read al-Fatihah aloud and listen for nothing except your ع and your ح.
The heavy seven, and the light rest. Nothing else this week.
Check. Take al-Ikhlas and mark every heavy letter in pencil before you recite it.
Noon sakinah and tanween, then meem sakinah.
Check. Take any page of the last juz and label every noon rule on it.
The madd. Settle your count for the joined and separated madd, then stop changing it.
Check. Read an-Nas at four counts throughout, then again at five, and hear the difference.
Lam and ra, where most readers who already sound fluent are still going wrong.
Check. Find ten ra letters on one page and say out loud why each one is heavy or light.
Stopping and starting, then the exceptions Hafs alone carries.
Check. Read the four saktah places, then stop once on every sign across one full page.
You cannot learn tajweed from a book, this one included. It passes from mouth to mouth, and always has.
This page can tell you the ض begins at the molars. It cannot hear that yours begins somewhere else. Only someone listening to you can do that.
My Tijarah
Read one page out loud to a teacher who holds an ijaazah
Your first lesson is free. Twenty five minutes, one to one, and an honest answer about where your recitation stands.
Find your teacher→mytijarah.co.uk
Notes
Where this came from
The reading
- Everything in this guide is Hafs an Asim by the way of the Shatibiyyah, which is what the Madinah mushaf is set to and what most readers of English are taught.
- Where Hafs departs from the general rule, page 21 records the departure rather than smoothing it over. Where the route matters to a count, as with the separated madd, the guide says so.
- Warsh, Qalun and the other readings differ in real ways on several pages here. Nothing in this guide should be read as a claim about any of them.
The classical sources
- Ibn al-Jazari, al-Muqaddimah al-Jazariyyah, for the seventeen makharij and the sifaat, and at-Tamhid fi at-Tajweed for the definition of tarteel used on the part three divider.
- Sulayman al-Jamzuri, Tuhfat al-Atfal, for the rules of noon sakinah and tanween, meem sakinah, the two lams and the madd, and for the mnemonic lines quoted throughout.
- Ash-Shatibi, Hirz al-Amani, for the counts of the joined and separated madd and for the grades of ghunnah.
The rulings and the disputed points
- islamweb.net fatwa 95786 on waqf and ibtida and on how binding the printed stopping signs are.
- islamqa.info answer 298693 on the obligatory and permitted saktat of Hafs.
- The description of the Prophet ﷺ stopping at the end of each ayah is Umm Salamah’s, reported by Abu Dawud 4001 and at-Tirmidhi 2927, and graded sound by ad-Daraqutni and al-Hakim.
- The well known saying "tarteel is giving the letters their due and knowing the stops" is widely attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib. islamqa.info answer 265364 notes that no chain has been found for it, so this guide cites it to Ibn al-Jazari, who records it, rather than to a Companion.
The figures
- The sagittal section behind both makharij figures is "Neutral Sagittal Section" from Wikimedia Commons, released under CC0 into the public domain. It is an anatomical drawing of the vocal tract, recoloured here and marked up for the seventeen points.
- Every other figure in this guide was drawn for it.
The Qur’an text
- Arabic follows the Uthmani script of the Tanzil Project, retrieved through the quran.com API. Every example was copied from that text rather than retyped, so the marks on the page are the marks in the mushaf.
- English renderings are given for meaning only and should not replace the Arabic in worship or in study.
- Surah and ayah references were checked one by one. If you find one that is wrong, we would like to know.
Keep this guide
Print page 23 and keep it inside the cover of your mushaf. Pass the rest to someone who has been meaning to sort their recitation out for years. When you want someone listening, we are at mytijarah.co.uk.