10. SCIENCE OF TAJWĪD (1)
What is tajwīd? It is derived from the verb جَوَّدَ (to do well, to make better, to improve). The term tajwīd
literally meansتَحْسِيْن (beautification, improvement, betterment)
and إِتْقَان (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”
(حَلال) meaning “lawful, legal” and “hilāl” (هِلال)
meaning "crescent". Another problem is articulating the letter “kh”(خ) , such as the word “khilāl” (خِلال) meaning “during, between, through; pin, skewer”), but the Dutch
and the Germans have no problem with it, as they have it in their languages,
such as “gram”, and “doch” respectively.
Letter
“gh”(غ) emitted from the throat is another letter
difficult to articulate, such as “ghayr” (غَيْر) meaning “other than, 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” (أَنْتَ) meaning “you” (masc.), and the “heavy t” (ط), such as “ṭayr” (طَيْر) 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” (كَلْب), meaning “a dog”, and the emitted from the throat k” (ق), such as “qalb” (قَلْب), 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” (أَسَى),
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” (عَسَى),
meaning “it might be, it could be”.
There are two kinds of
“z” in Arabic: the normal “z” (ز), such as
“zayt” (زَيْت),
meaning “oil”, and “z close to d” (ظـ) , such as “ẓālim” (ظَالِم),
meaning “a wrong-doer”. For the “z” close to “d” (ظـ), its 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 (صَلاة), meaning “prayer”. The other
letter is ض (its transliteration is a
dot put under letter d, namely, ḍ), such as “ḍalāl” (ضَلاَل), meaning “straying from the
right path or from truth, error”).[1]
The Arabic language has no letter
“p”, so that this letter is replaced with letter “b”, such as “Pakistan”
becomes “Bākistān” (باكستان), “Japan”
becomes “Yābān” (يابان), “Napoleon”
becomes “Nābulyūn” (نابليون), etc. Sometimes names are completely changed in Arabic, such as
“Plato” becomes “Aflāṭūn” (أفلاطون), and
“Nebuchadnezzar” becomes “Bukhtunaṣṣar” (بختنصّر).
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:
a. Assimilation (إدغام ), which is divided into two:
(1) Full Assimilation (إدغام بلا غنة) ,
i.e., without nasalization. The sound “n” followed by
either letter “l” (ل) or
“r”(ر) , the sound “n” (ن) disappears and the letter “l” or
“r” are doubled and become “ll” or “rr”, such as, Ashhadu aN Lā (pronounced
aLLā) (أشهدأن لا), … and anna muḥammadaN
Rasūlullāh (pronounced muḥammadaR Rasūlullāh) (محمدا رسول الله) . To remember: “suddeNLy” (read “suddeLLy”) and “suNRise” (read
“suRRise”)
(2) Nasal Assimilation (إدغام بغنة), 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
(رسول منهم) (Remember: “iNMate” and read “iMMate”)
(رسول منهم) (Remember: “iNMate” and read “iMMate”)
-
“Y”
(ي),
n+y=yy maN Yashā’, read maYYashā’ (من يشاء)
(Remember: teN Years read teYYears)
-
“W” (و),
n+w=ww; hudaN Waraḥmah read hudaW Waraḥmah (هدى ورحمة)
(Remember: seveN Weeks read
seveWWeeks)
-
“N”(ن), n+n=nn jannātuN
Na‘īm read jannātuNNa‘īm (جنات نعيم) (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 (بنيان) , dunyā(دنيا)
, qinwān (قنوان) , and ṣinwān(صنوان)
.
b.
Substitution (إقلاب). 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 (سميع
بصير)
(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”.
(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 (من علق)
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.
This is also extremely important to
distinguish between “Ṭ” (ط) and “T” (ت). “matrūk”
(متروك)means “heritage,
legacy, (something) left” whereas “maṭərūqe”(مطروق) means “(something) much frequented, much
traveled, much discussed (subject)”. In the past we had ghalat(غلت)
which means
“mistake” in calculation, but no longer found in modern Arabic dictionary, and ghalaṭ
(غلط) which is mistake in general sense.
-“B” (ب), such subḥānallāh
read subəḥānallāh (سبحان
الله)
waqab read
waqabə (وقب)
This
is also important to distinguish between “B” (ب)
and “F” (ف).
”Kasabəta” (كسبتَ)means “you
have earned, you win”, whereas “kasafta” (كسفتَ)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 (يُدرك) means “he understands, he realizes”, whereas yatruku
(يترك)means “he leaves”.
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 , ج, and د , or of 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 (ولم يكن له). 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 (أبي لهب وتب). 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
[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.
[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.
