11. SCIENCE OF TAJWĪD (2)
When we introduce foreign words into English,
sometimes we have to pronounce them as they are in order to be understood by
people, such as Grand Prix (read “groŋ prie”; French, lit. “Grand
Price”)[1],
ballet (Fr., read “balei”) dance, Giro d’Italia (read as “jiro
ditalia” lit. “Italian tour”). As letter “z” is pronounced “ts” in
Italian, we are supposed to say “pitstsa” for “pizza”, and “piatstsa”
for “piazza” meaning “a place, a square. “Caffé e
latte” and “café au lait” are nothing but “coffe-milk” made respectively
in Italian and French way. As letter “j” is pronounced as a weak “h” in
Spanish, the name José should pronounced “(H)osé” (for Joseph), and marijuana
as mari(h)uana.
Since
the invention of “cheese burger” people might think that hamburger is
made of ham which is not supposed to be so. The word is derived from the
city “Hamburg” in Germany. And hamburger is originally (1) ground or
chopped beef made into round flat cake and fried, (2) sandwich or bread
roll filled with this. Any hamburger has to be with beef, and not with ham. If
the meat is replaced by cheese, then it is called cheese burger.
Even in
the English language, American, Canadian, Australian and British English from
which King’s English became the standard and educated English, they have some
differences in their accents and slangs. When the American says “a letter” the
sound is like saying “a ladder”, and when the Australian says “nine” it is as
he is saying “neun” (9) in German. When an American tourist asked a Birtish man
about the “Comedy Theatre” he did not understand it, because what he thought
was “Cormedy Theatre”. When I asked for “shipping bags” at the department store
in Montreal, the girl who worked in the store did not understand me, until I
found them myself and told her that these were what I wanted.
She said she did not understand me, because she thought I was saying “sheeping bags”.
She said she did not understand me, because she thought I was saying “sheeping bags”.
Arabic language and its various dialects and
slangs are more devastating for non-Arabs who learn classical or modern written
Arabic,
al-‘Arabiyyah al-Fuṣḥá (العربية
الفصحى), like the one used in the Qur’an. The
common expression for “yes” in the Arab world besides na‘am is iywā or
aywā which is originally from iy wallah (إي (والله meaning meaning “yes, by Allah”. Learning Arabic in
the Middle-East you are also to be familiar with the slang of the area you are
visiting. When I taught Lebanes school children the word ummī meaning
“my mother”, they said that it should have been immī. I told
them, it was in Lebanese slang, only understood by Lebanese and some other
Arabs, whereas ummī, was understood by the whole Arabs as well
as non-Arabs who know Arabic, because it was a classical and modern standard
Arabic. Similarly, the term bayyī and khayyī stand for abī and akhī meaning “my father” and “my brother” respectively.
The
verses of the Qur’an were revealed murattal, i.e., cafrefully and
precisely articulated, slowly recited in chanting manner, as well as mujawwad,
i.e, verses read with correct and good pronunciation. The science of tajwīd was orally taught
by the teacher to his students through repeated readings until they master it. The
teacher read the verses of the Qur’an to his students, and the students
listened to him. Next, the students read them, and the teacher listened to them
and corrected their mistakes. There had not been any guided book for teaching tajwīd
until the 4th century of A.H. when the science of tajwīd was
introduced as knowledge by itself.
The
first who laid down the rules of tajwīd were the leaders of readings and
languists at the beginning of the era of compilation. Some said it was laid
down by al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad (100-170/718-786)[2],
others said it was by Abū ’l-Aswad al-Du’alī (16BH-69/603– 688)[3],
and another view is that it was laid down by Abū ‘Ubayd al-Qāsim ibn al-Sallām
(157-224/774-839)[4]
The impact of the increase of Islamic conquest and the conversion of many
non-Arabs to Islam, led to the mixure of Arabic with non-Arabic languages, and
many Arabic words were wrongly pronounced. In order to save the Qur’an from this laḥn
(mispronunciation) it became necessary to teach them the proper pronunciation
through the science of tajwīd. Dots and vowel signs were put in the
verses of the Qur’an, whereas in the ‘Uthmanic codex, there were only
consonantal skeletons, and there was neither dots, nor vowel signs.
The first who compiled
and composed on the tajwīd which he called حسن الأداء (“good rendition”) was Abū
Muzāḥim al-Khāqānī (d. 325 AH) in the form of poetry consisting of 51 lines.
The term tajwīd at that time was not
well-known yet.[5] He
urged the Qur’an reciter to to improve his recitation. He said: أيا قارئ القرآن، أحسِن أداءه (“O reader of the Qur’an, master its
rendering”). Then many authors wrote on this subject, such as Abū ‘l-Faḍl
al-Rāzī (371-454/981-1062), who wrote فضائل القرآن وتلاوته (“The Virtue of the Qur’an
and its Reading”), and ‘Abd al-Wahhāb al-Qurṭubī
(d. 461 AH)) who wrote الموضّح
في التجويد (“the
Illustrator in the Tajwīd”).
There
are four positions or the sound “n” in its relation with letters following it,
namely: a. Assimilation (إِدْغَام); b. Substitution
(إِقْلاب); c. clarity
(إِظْهَار); and d. Concealment
(إِخْفَاء). We have dealt with the
assimilation and the substitution in the prevous khuṭbah and shall deal
with the clarity and concealment as follows:
c. Clarity (إِظْهَار)
There
are six letters which have to be pronounced clearly whenever they follow the
sound “n”. The sound “n” itself has to be sounded clealy as well. These letters
are called “letters of clarity”. They are: أ (alif) or ء (hamzah),
its sound could be “a”, “i”, or “u”.
Example: maN Adbara, read maN Adəbara, مَنْ أَدْبَرَ
‘adhābaN
Alīmā, read ‘adhābaN Alīmā عَذَابًا أَلِيْمَا
ع (‘ayn), its sound could be “ ‘a”, “ ‘i”, or “ ‘u”
Example:
maN ‘Amila, read man ‘Amila,
مَنْ عَمِلَ
mā’uN ‘Adhbun, read mā’uN ‘Adhbun
مَاءٌ عَذْبٌ
an‘Amta read an‘Amta أَنْعَمْتَ
غ (gh,
ghayn), its sound could be “gha”, “ghi”, or “ghu”
Example: miN GHillin,
read miN GHillin مِنْ غِلٍّ
mā’aN GHadaqā read mā’aN
GHadaqā ماَءً غَدَقَا
ح (ḥ, ḥā’), its sound could be “ḥa”, “ḥi”, or “ḥu”
Example: rizqaN Ḥalālan read rizqaN Ḥalālan رِزْقَا حَلالاَ
qarḍaN Ḥasanan, read qarḍaN Ḥasanan قَرْضًا حَسَنًا
خ (kh, khā’), its sound could be “kha”, “khi”, or “khu”
Example: miN KHilālih read miN
KHilālih مِنْ خِلالِه
iN KHiftum read iN KHiftum إِنْ خِفْتُم
هـ (h, hā’), its sound could be “ha”, “hi”, or “hu”
Example:
iN Huwa, read in Huwa إنْ هُوَ;
miNHum read miNHum مِنْهُمْ
The way to remember
these clearly pronounced six letters after the sound “n” is by putting six
words into one line of poetry. The first letter of these words is one of the
six letters to remember. The first part of this line of poetry runs as follows:
أَخِيْ
هَاكَ عِلْمًا حَازَهُ غَيْرُ خَاسِرِ *
...
“My brother, here is knowledge whoever
gets it will not become loser…”
For
those who do not know Arabic, may be just to say the expression “Ah!” A=a+‘a=gh) أ + ع + (غ; H=h+ḥ+kh (هـ + ح +خ ) (Letter غ which should be included is letter ع with a dot on it)
d. Concealment (إِخْفَاء)
There are fifteen letters when it is
preceded by sound “n” this sound should be concealed, although not completely.
These letters are as follows:
tā’(ت), thā’ (ث), jīm (ج), dāl (د ), dhāl (ذ), zay (ز), sīn (س), shīn (ش),
ṣād (ص), ḍād (ض ), ṭā’ ( ط), ẓā’(ظ), fā’ (ف), qāf (ق), and kāf (ك).
These letters may be difficult to remember,
but through practice they will be remembered. If we remember the letters in
assimilation, substitusion, and clarity, all of the remaining Arabic alphabets
belong to this category of concealment.
Examples:
-
ت , كُنْتُمْ , kuntum read kuntum, like content
we say content, just the equivalent of the French content.
-
ث , مِنْ ثَمَرَات min thamarāt read min thamarāt like anthem we say anthem
-
ج , إِنْجيْل Injīl
(Bible) read Injīl, like enjoy read enjoy. It
is like French enjoué (playful)
-
د , عِنْدَهُمْ ‘indahun read ‘indahum, like tendency we say tendency. It is the equivalent of the French tendance
(tendency, leaning)
-
ذ , فَأَنْذِرْ fa’andhir read fa’andhir, like
in this we read in this
-
ز , مُنْزِلِيْن munzilīn
read munzilīn,
like ANZAC read ANZAC,
-
س , تُنْسَى tunsā read tunsā, like
insist, we say insist. It is like the French ensuite (then,
later)
-
ش , فَمَنْ
شَاءَ , faman
shā’a read faman shā’a, like sunshine we say sunshine,
like the French mon choix (my choice)
-
ص , أَنْصَار anṣār read anṣār, close to insomnia read insomnia. (Fr.
ensomnie). Although letterص (ṣ)
is not found in English (as well as many other languages(, the
sound is almost like s in the Australian accent when the say the word “side”,
“inside” (also probably in French when they say incendie (fire).
-
ض , فَمَنْ ضَلَّ , faman ḍalla
read faman ḍalla. Since we do nto have this letter in English, it would be better to
remember Nelson “Mandella”, close to faman ḍalla.
-
ط , مِنْ طِيْن , min ṭīn read min ṭīn.
This ط (ṭ) letter
is not found in English (as well as many other languages), the sound is almost
like “t” in the Australian accent when the say the word “time”, (also probably
in French when they say the name Antoin)
-
ظ , أُنْظُر , unẓur read unẓur. We do not have this sound in
English.
-
ف , يُنْفِقُونَ, yunfiqūna read yunfiqūna; for infant, we say infant. It is the equivalent of the French word enfant (child).
-
ق , يَنْقَلِبُ , yanqalibu read Yanqalibu. We do not have this sound in English, but probably close to “inquiry”.
-
ك , مِنْكُمْ , minkum
read minkum, like anchor
we say éŋkə, similar to the
French encore (still, again).
This
sentence may give help: “The infant Insists to enjoy the sunshine and has
tendency to be content with Manḍella and the
national anthem on this ANZAC day, but later he got inṣomnia.”
In conclusion: There are 28 letters in
the Arabic alphabet, six of them belong to idghām (assimilation, remember
“You aRe aLoNe With Me,”
Ann, assimilate, disappear!), six
letters belong to iẓhār (clarity, remember “AH”), one (ب)belongs to iqlāb (substitution, remember “Camberra”),
and the remaining 15 letters belong to ikhfā’. We also remember the
intensification (qalqalah) letters, as “Cat Beta Gamma Delta”,
namely, د ج ب ط ق . Letter hamzah(ء)
is considered to belong
to letter alif (ا) . (to be
continued).
(CIVIC, 27 March, 2015)
Bibliography:
Denffer, Ahmad von. ‘Ulūm
al-Qur’ān. Kuala Lumpur: The Islamic Foundation, 1983
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajwid
[1] The term Grand Price may refer to
competitions, such as Shanghai Golden Grand Prix; to Racing, such as Grand Prix Motor Racing;
to Combat Sports, such as International
Wrestling Grand Prix; to Chess, such as, Grand Prix Attacks (a chess
opening); to Equestrianism, such as,
Grand Prix (horse race); to Awards, such as Grand Prix (Cannes Film
Festival); to Video games, such as, Formula One Grand Prix (video
game)
[2] Al-Khalil bin Ahmad was
one of the great masters in the science of Arabic grammar, and the discoverer
of the rules of prosody.
[3] Abū ’l-Aswad was a close companion of Ali ibn Abi
Talib and a grammarian. He was the first to place markings on consonants and vowels on Arabic letters to clearly identify them.
He was the first to write on Arabic linguistics, and is said to be the first to
write a book on Arabic grammar (nahw) which
he took from the caliph ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib.
[4]Al-Wāsim Ibn al-Sallām was a linguist. In 192/807
became judge in Ṭarṭūs (Tortosa, a small coastal town in Syria) for 18 years
and died in Makkah.
[5] ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ūd, one of the Companions of the Prophet,
was reported to have said: “Render the reading of the Qur’an ith the best “Read
the Qur’an with the best rendering, and decorate (beautify) it with your best
voice.” ( جوّدوا القرآن وزينوه بأحسن الأصوات )
