Assalam
o Alaikum Brothers and sisters in Islam
An Arabic adage
proclaims: “The speech of the kings is the king of all speech.”
So, can the excellency of
the speech of the kings of all kings – Allah Ta’ala – even be equated with
man-made speech.
One of the many miracles
of the Noble Qur’aan is that regardless of the number of times it is recited,
one never gets tired nor bored with its recitation. Allah Ta’ala says in the
Noble Qur’aan, ‘Indeed the believers are those who tremble with fear when Allah
is remembered and when the verses of the Qur’aan are recited before them, it
increases their belief and upon Allah they have complete trust.” (8:2)
One of the salient points
mentioned in this verse is that when a believer recites the Noble Qur’aan in
the correct manner, it increases his faith and belief in Allah. Reciting the
Noble Qur’aan in the correct manner means to recite it with Tajwid.
What is Tajwid?
Allah Ta’ala says in the
Noble Qur’aan, ‘And recite the Qur’aan with Tarteel.’ (73:4)
When asked about the
meaning of Tarteel, Hadhrat Ali (Radhiallaahu Anhu) replied, ‘It means that the
Qur’aan should be recited with Tajwid and with due observance to the rules of
Waqf (pausing or stopping at the end of the verse).’
Tajwid means to recite
every letter correctly, i.e. from its proper origin of pronunciation coupled
with its stipulated attributes.
According to Imaam Jawzi
(Rahmatullaahi Alayhi), the verse, ‘Verily my people have renounced the
Qur’aan’ has two interpretations. Firstly, it could mean that they had
renounced the Qur’aan by not believing in it and practicing upon it. And
secondly, it could mean that they used to recite the Qur’aan in such a
disgusting manner that it sounded like senseless and meaningless jabbering.
Reading the Qur’aan without Tajwid could also be included in the second
interpretation.
Tajwid from the Hadith
Rasulullah has said,
‘Indeed Allah desires that the Qur’aan be recited in the manner it was
revealed.’ This Hadith clarified by the Aayat and, ‘We revealed the Qur’aan
with Tartil.’ (2:32)
The definition of Tartil
has been explained above. Since the Qur’aan emphatically commands us to recite
the Qur’aan with Tajwid, it is Fardh to recite the Qur’aan with Tajwid.
Rasulullah has said, ‘The
Qur’aan will either testify in your favour or against you.’ Hence, if we fail
to observe the requirements of the Noble Qur’aan during our recitation, the
Qur’aan will testify against us. If we are unacquainted with these
prerequisites, we are compelled to acquire the laws of Tajwid.
Due to the vastness of
the Arabic language, any small mistake in pronunciation of a letter or word may
change the meaning of that word. For example, the word ‘Qalb’ (with q) means
heart, if read ‘Kalb’ (with k), it will mean a dog’. So just as how in any
other language we learn pronunciation of letters and words, for example, in
English we learn that ‘ph’ stands for ‘f’ (as in phone) and not pone.
Similarly, in the Arabic language, we also have to learn pronunciation of
letters and words, which we term as ‘Tajwid’. Tajwid is not like all other
subjects which we are able to separate from the Qur’aan but instead Tajwid and
Qur’aan work hand in hand. If there is no Tajwid with Qur’aan, there is no
Qur’aan. The question may arise that, how can such a statement be made that if
a person reads Qur’aan without Tajwid, he is not read Qur’aan? Yes, such a
statement is 100% correct.
Our beloved Rasul states
in one Hadith, ‘There are a lot of readers that read the Qur’aan but the
Qur’aan curses them instead of making Du’aa for them.’ We get some people
nowadays who spend hours and hours reciting the Qur’aan thinking that they are
getting and attaining great rewards. But because there pronunciation of letters
is incorrect, a very big problem arise. It sounds very small when we say, ‘I am
only pronouncing a letter incorrectly..’ But did this thought ever cross our
minds that when a letter changes in a word, the word changes and if a word
changes in a sentence then the whole sentence changes and eventually the
meaning also changes. So from this, we understand the Hadith of our Rasul ,
that some people read so much of the Qur’aan but because they do not know the
correct pronunciation of the letters, they change the letters which then
changes the words which eventually leads to the changing of the sentence and
meaning of the Qur’aan. So, the Qur’aan in turn, instead of making Du’aa for
such people it curses them.
We should also remember
that from the time and generation of Nabi till now, no one has ever denied this
fact that Tajwid is compulsory. It is only now in our generation that people
have lost respect and forgotten the status of Tajwid. Today, even logic will
show us the importance of Tajwid. If we write a letter to our beloved and give
it to someone to give it to him or her, but this Mr Someone takes the letter
and changes a few words which eventually changes the meaning of your letter,
how would we feel?
Wouldn’t we get angry and
take such a person to task , so in the same way, the Qur’aan is the word of
Allah. If we change the word of Allah then Allah Ta’ala will definitely get
angry with us and take us to task just as how we would do if someone changes
our words in our letters.
So from all this, we can
see that the Qur’aan is not Qur’aan until and unless it is read with Tajwid.
Just as how if someone changes our letter addressed to our beloved, we would
say that this is not our letter. We can also see from all this, the importance
of reading the Qur’aan with Tajwid.
May Allah give me, you
and all the ability to read the Qur’aan correctly so that we may earn the mercy
of Allah Ta’ala and not the anger of Allah.
