Recite With Tajweed

A noon sakinah is a noon carrying a sukoon. Tanween is the doubled vowel at the end of a noun, which is pronounced as a hidden noon. The letter that follows decides how it is recited.

The four rules

• Izhar (clear pronunciation): before the six throat letters (hamzah, ha, 'ayn, ha, ghayn, kha) the noon is pronounced clearly, without extra nasal sound.
• Idgham (merging): before the letters of the word "yarmalun" (ya, ra, mim, lam, waw, noon) the noon merges into the next letter. With ya, noon, mim and waw it merges with ghunnah (nasal sound); with lam and ra it merges without ghunnah.
• Iqlab (changing): before ba, the noon changes into a hidden mim sound with ghunnah.
• Ikhfa (hiding): before the remaining fifteen letters the noon is hidden, with ghunnah, between clear and merged.

Practise

Listen to each example below, then recite it slowly with your teacher. Listen for the ghunnah (nasal sound) lasting about two counts in Idgham with ghunnah, Iqlab and Ikhfa.

A meem sakinah is a mim with sukoon. Its rule depends on the letter after it.

• Ikhfa shafawi (lip hiding): before ba, the mim is hidden with ghunnah, lips lightly closed.
• Idgham shafawi (lip merging): before another mim, the two merge into one stressed mim with ghunnah.
• Izhar shafawi (clear): before every other letter, the mim is pronounced clearly. Take extra care before waw and fa, which are also made with the lips.

The Qalqalah letters are qaf, ta (ṭ), ba, jim and dal, often remembered as "qutbu jad". When one of them has a sukoon, the letter is released with a slight echo, without adding a vowel.

• Minor (sughra): the sukoon is in the middle of a word.
• Major (kubra): you stop on the letter at the end of an ayah; the echo is clearer.

Listen to the endings of the examples: you stop on dal and on qaf.

Madd means lengthening a vowel sound. The madd letters are alif after a fatha, waw sakinah after a damma and ya sakinah after a kasra.

• Madd tabi'i (natural): two counts, with no hamzah or sukoon after it.
• Madd muttasil (joined): a hamzah follows in the same word; lengthened four or five counts.
• Madd munfasil (separated): the hamzah begins the next word; lengthened according to the reading taught (commonly four or five counts in Hafs via Shatibiyyah).
• Madd lazim (necessary): a shaddah or permanent sukoon follows; six counts.

Ask your teacher which lengths they teach so that you stay consistent.

When noon or mim carries a shaddah, hold the nasal sound (ghunnah) for about two counts. Notice the stressed noon in "an-nas" throughout Surah An-Nas.

Each Arabic letter is produced from a specific point (makhraj). Learning them prevents letters from blending together.

1. The empty space of the mouth and throat (al-jawf): the madd letters.
2. The throat (al-halq): hamzah and ha from the deepest part; 'ayn and ha from the middle; ghayn and kha from the top.
3. The tongue (al-lisan): most letters, from the back of the tongue (qaf, kaf) to its tip (ta, dal, ṭa and others).
4. The lips (ash-shafatan): fa, ba, mim and waw.
5. The nasal passage (al-khayshum): the ghunnah.

Practise each letter with a sukoon after a hamzah with fatha (for example "ab", "at") to feel where it is made. A qualified teacher should listen and correct you.