Tajwīd · 01 of 08
Wallet cards
Tajwīd
التجويدতাজবীদ
Scholarly review: pending
This text comes from the Sabīl print library. Its scholarly review is still in progress; every item will carry its reviewers’ names and the date once two scholars have signed it.
Recitation & its rules
التَّجْوِيدُ
At-tajwīd
Giving every letter its right and its due. Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim, the reading of the Madīnah muṣḥaf.
2 · Makhārij — where letters are formed
3 · Ṣifāt — the qualities of letters
4 · Nūn sākinah & tanwīn
5 · Mīm sākinah & the ghunnah
6 · Madd — the lengthenings
7 · Waqf — the signs for stopping
8 · Sajdah tilāwah & opening a recitation
A count (ḥarakah) is the time to open or close one finger. Learn by ear from a teacher; this card is a reminder, not a substitute.
02Makhārij
Seventeen points of articulation within five regions.
Al-Jawf — the empty space of mouth and throat. The three madd letters: ا و ي
Al-Ḥalq — the throat, in three depths. Deepest ء هـ · middle ع ح · nearest غ خ
Al-Lisān — the tongue, ten points, the largest region: the deep tongue for ق ك, the middle for ج ش ي, the edges for ض ل, the tip for the rest.
Ash-Shafatān — the lips: ف from lip to teeth; ب م closed; و rounded.
Al-Khayshūm — the nasal passage. The ghunnah alone.
To find a makhraj, pronounce the letter with a sākin and a hamzah before it — aq, ab, ath — and feel where it stops.
03Ṣifāt
With an opposite
Hams / jahr — breath flows, or is held.
Shiddah / rakhāwah — sound stops fully, or flows; five letters sit between.
Istiʿlā’ / istifāl — the tongue rises, or stays low. The seven raised letters خ ص ض غ ط ق ظ are always heavy.
Iṭbāq / infitāḥ — the tongue seals against the palate: ص ض ط ظ, the heaviest of all.
Standing alone
Qalqalah — an echo when sākin: ق ط ب ج د. Strongest at a stop with shaddah.
Ṣafīr — a whistle: ص ز س
Takrīr — ر trills; the quality is to be restrained, not displayed.
Tafashshī — ش spreads in the mouth.
Istiṭālah — ض extends along the tongue’s edge.
Lām and rā’
The lām of اللَّه is heavy after fatḥah or ḍammah, light after kasrah. Rā’ is heavy with fatḥah or ḍammah, light with kasrah.
04Nūn sākinah & tanwīn
Four rulings, decided by the letter that follows.
1 · Iẓhār
ء هـ ع ح غ خ
h ‘ ḥ gh kh
2 · Idghām
yarmalūn
ي ر م ل و ن
Y r m l w n
ي ن م و
Y n m w
ل ر
L r
3 · Iqlāb — turned to a hidden mīm with ghunnah. One letter: ب.
4 · Ikhfā’ — hidden between clear and merged, two counts of ghunnah, the tongue already shaped for the next letter. The remaining fifteen.
Idghām does not apply within a single word — الدُّنْيَا, بُنْيَان, صِنْوَان, قِنْوَان are read clearly.
05Mīm sākinah
1 · Ikhfā’ shafawī — before ب. The lips meet lightly, without pressure, with two counts of ghunnah.
2 · Idghām shafawī — before another م. The two become one with ghunnah.
3 · Iẓhār shafawī — before all other letters. The lips close fully and the mīm is clear. Take particular care before و and ف, where the mīm is easily lost.
The ghunnah
A nasal resonance of two counts, belonging to ن and م alone. It is at its fullest when either carries a shaddah:
إِنَّ · ثُمَّ · عَمَّ · مِنَّا
Inn · thumma · ‘amm · minnā
Held two counts wherever it occurs, whether in the middle of a verse or at a stop.
Ghunnah lengthens slightly in ikhfā’ and idghām, and is at its shortest on a mīm or nūn carrying a ḥarakah — where it is a trace, not a hum.
06Madd
The natural madd is two counts. It lengthens only for a hamzah or a sukūn that follows.
Aṣlī · 2 — a madd letter with nothing after it.
Muttaṣil · 4–5 — hamzah follows in the same word. Obligatory.
Munfaṣil · 4–5 — hamzah begins the next word. Permissible; two counts is also read for Ḥafṣ.
Lāzim · 6 — a permanent sukūn or shaddah follows. Always six, without exception.
ʿĀriḍ lis-sukūn · 2, 4 or 6 — sukūn arises only because you stop. Choose one length and keep to it.
Badal · 2 — the hamzah comes before the madd letter.
ʿIwaḍ · 2 — stopping on a tanwīn fatḥ, read as an alif.
Ṣilah — the hā’ of a pronoun between two vowelled letters: two counts, or four to five before a hamzah.
The disconnected letters opening certain sūrahs carry madd lāzim at six counts — الٓمٓ — except حي طهر, which take two.
07Waqf — stopping
The small letters above the line in the muṣḥaf.
مـLāzim — you must stop; continuing distorts the meaning.
لاDo not stop — though if you have stopped, repeat from before it.
جPermitted — stopping and continuing are equal.
صلىContinuing is better, though stopping is allowed.
قلىStopping is better, though continuing is allowed.
∴ ∴Muʿānaqah — stop at one of the pair, never at both.
سSaktah — a brief pause without breathing. Four places in Ḥafṣ.
When stopping, the final letter takes a sukūn: a ḍammah or kasrah is dropped, tanwīn fatḥ becomes an alif of two counts, and a tā’ marbūṭah is read as hā’.
Never stop mid-word or mid-phrase for breath. Return to the start of the phrase instead.
08Opening & sajdah
Beginning a recitation
أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ
A‘ūdhu billāhi minash-shayṭānir-rajīm
Then the basmalah — at the head of every sūrah but al-Tawbah. Beginning mid-sūrah, the isti‘ādhah alone suffices.
Q 16:98
The fifteen sajdahs
7:206
13:15
16:50
17:109
19:58
22:18
22:77
25:60
27:26
32:15
38:24
41:38
53:62
84:21
96:19
Ḥb counts fifteen; Ḥ and S count fourteen, holding 38:24 to be a prostration of thanks; M counts eleven.
Said in the prostration
سَجَدَ وَجْهِي لِلَّذِي خَلَقَهُ وَصَوَّرَهُ
Sajada wajhī lilladhī khalaqahu wa ṣawwarah
My face prostrates to the One who created and shaped it.
Tirmidhī · ṣaḥīḥ. No takbīr to end it and no salām; it is a single prostration.
Lines with a dotted edge give the sound of the Arabic, worked out by rule from its vowel marks. They are not from the print titles and have not been reviewed: where one differs from the Arabic, the Arabic is right.
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