Tajwid
The articulation points, the attributes and the rules — described, not prescribed
These pages describe the apparatus of speech: where the tongue goes, how the breath runs, what the marks in the mushaf instruct. Every example is read from the KFGQPC text as it stands, and its spot is located in that text at build time rather than recalled. Where the schools of tajwid differ, the difference is reported and attributed, and no reading is preferred over another.
64 rules
Articulation points
Where in the mouth and throat each sound is produced, from the cavity to the lips.
- The oral cavitythe unobstructed space that carries the three madd letters
- Deepest throatthe furthest point of the throat, where the hamza and the ha emerge
- Middle throatthe middle of the throat, where it narrows, giving ain and hah
- Nearest throatthe part of the throat closest to the mouth, giving ghain and khah
- Rear tongue against the soft palate — qafthe hindmost tongue on the soft palate, giving qaf
- Rear tongue, slightly forward — kafthe rear tongue where the two palates meet, giving kaf
- Middle of the tonguethe mid tongue meeting the hard palate, giving jeem, sheen and non-madd yeh
- Edge of the tongue — dadthe tongue edge against the upper molars, giving dad alone
- Nearest tongue edge — lamthe near tongue edge against the upper gum, giving lam alone
- Tongue tip — noonthe tongue tip at the upper gum with sound running through the nose
- Tongue tip — rathe tongue tip a little further in than noon, giving ra alone
- Tongue tip against the roots of the upper incisorswhere tah, dal and teh are formed
- Tongue tip just above the lower incisorsthe narrow slit the air whistles through
- Tongue tip against the tips of the upper incisorswhere zah, thal and theh are formed
- Inner lower lip — fathe inner lower lip meeting the upper incisors, giving fa alone
- The two lipsthe lips closing on ba and meem and rounding on the non-madd waw
- The nasal passagethe upper nasal cavity: no letter of its own, the outlet of the ghunna
Letter attributes
What the letter itself does: whether breath runs or is held, whether the sound stops or continues.
- Whispered (voiceless)the vocal cords still and the breath running audibly, in ten letters
- Voicedthe cords vibrating and the breath held: every letter outside hams
- Plosive (stopped)the articulators closing so the sound stops dead, in eight letters
- Intermediatebetween full closure and full openness, in five letters
- Continuant (soft)the articulators apart and the sound running on: not shidda, not tawassut
- Elevationthe back of the tongue lifting and thickening the sound, in seven letters
- Loweringthe tongue staying low and the sound light: every letter outside isti'la
- Adhesion (of tongue to palate)the tongue pressed flat to the palate, in four letters
- Separationthe tongue away from the palate and air escaping: outside the itbaq four
- Fluency (tip-and-lip letters)letters at the tongue tip or the lips that the mouth forms quickly
- Restraintthe counterpart of idhlaq: neither tip nor lip letters, heavier on the mouth
- Whistlea high whistle escaping the slit between the tongue tip and the teeth
- Echo / bounceplosive and voiced letters that bounce audibly when released on a sukun
- Softnesswaw or yeh carrying sukun after a fatha, formed without strain
- Deviationthe sound bending away from its own point: lam forward, ra backward
- Repetition (trill)the tongue tip disposed to vibrate on ra, named so it can be recognised
- Spreadingthe breath of sheen spreading through the mouth toward the front teeth
- Elongation along the tongue edgethe sound of dad running along the tongue edge
- Nasalisationa nasal sound inseparable from noon and meem, fullest under a shadda
Noon sakinah and tanween
What happens to a noon carrying sukun, and to a tanween, according to the letter that follows.
- Throat-letter claritya noon or tanween before a throat letter, pronounced plainly
- Merging with nasalisationa noon or tanween folded into a following ya, noon, meem or waw
- Merging without nasalisationa noon or tanween disappearing entirely into a following lam or ra
- Conversion to meema noon or tanween before ba turned into a hidden meem, the ghunna held on it
- Concealmenta noon neither plain nor merged before fifteen letters, the ghunna held
Meem sakinah
What happens to a meem carrying sukun according to the letter that follows.
Prolongation
The drawing out of a madd letter, what causes it, and its length as reported.
- Natural prolongationa madd letter with no hamza and no sukun after it: the unit for every madd
- Connected prolongationa madd letter followed by a hamza inside the same word
- Separated prolongationa madd letter ending one word and a hamza beginning the next
- Prolongation for a temporary sukuna madd letter before a letter silenced by stopping
- Soft-letter prolongationwaw or yeh after a fatha, drawn out when the reciter stops
- Obligatory word prolongation, heavya madd letter followed by a shadda inside a word
- Obligatory word prolongation, lighta madd letter before a plain sukun, in two places only
- Obligatory letter prolongation, heavyan opening letter whose final sakin merges on
- Obligatory letter prolongation, lightan opening letter whose final sakin merges into nothing
- Substitute prolongationa hamza first and the madd letter after it, the reverse of the other two
- Compensatory prolongationstopping on a tanween fath gives an alef sound instead
- Minor connecting prolongationa pronoun ha joined to a small waw or yeh sound
- Major connecting prolongationthe connecting madd where the next word opens with a hamza
Stop marks
Marks the annotators placed above the line. They are scholarship, not revealed text.
- Necessary stop marka small meem above the line, placed where reading on would obscure the sense
- No-stop marka small lam-alef above the line where the annotators judged the phrase incomplete
- Permitted-stop marka small jeem above the line: stopping and reading past judged equally sound
- Continuing-is-preferable markthe ligature abbreviating al-wasl awla, above the line
- Stopping-is-preferable markthe ligature abbreviating al-waqf awla, above the line
- Embracing-stop markthree dots printed twice: two candidate stops, one of the pair taken
- Pause marka small seen above the line: a brief break in sound without taking a breath
Nothing here is scored and nothing has to be proved; it is a description to read.