Question

Dear Brothers and Sisters

 Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah

 In one of your previous answers, you explained the following about ghunna.

the actual timing of  a ghunnah can only be learned by reading  to and being corrected by an accomplished teacher of tajweed.  

If one has no such accomplished teacher to read to and be corrected by, what can one who definitely wants to learn to actual timing do?  

If there are established rules, I believed they can still be formulated and explained, not only by direct contact. If this is in fact impossible, can we then say that the rules are not fix and they vary from one scholar to another?   

Thank in advance for your help. May Allah reward you for everything.
Wassalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah

 Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh,. 

There is no doubt that tajweed can only be learned correctly orally and although textual explanation of the tajweed rules assists in understanding the theories, without reading to accomplished teacher, the student will still be a student. 

If a student of the Qur'an wants to learn proper tajweed and recite the way it was passed down from generation to generation and there is no one available that is qualified to teach them in their area, there are several options. 
1.  Locate a teacher, contact them, and travel to that teacher to learn as much as possible in the amount of time you have allotted to learn from them.  Let us not forget that our righteous predecessors understood that this was the way to obtain knowledge and would travel very long distances, under harsh circumstances to go to one with knowledge and learn from them.

2.  Locate a teacher, contact them, and read to them on the telephone as much as finances allow and the teacher is able to give in time.

3.  If finances or circumstances prevent the first two; keep one or two as a goal, but listen to tarteel tapes of such accomplished reciters as: Sheikh Al-Husaray and Sheikh Abdullah Basfar.  This is only a temporary solution and the goal should always be to find a teacher.  Listening tapes helps in hearing how rules are applied, how long each ghunnah is according to the speed of reading, etc, but the tape cannot correct your recitation or hear the articulation points of the letters. 

The timing of the ghunnah is not related to vowel counts, and as such it is incorrect to say it is "two| or "three" vowel counts, or "four".  If you listen to a known reciter and establish the speed of one vowel count for their particular reading, you will certainly see that the ghunnah timing is not related to the vowel counts.  Please also look at the lesson on the ranks of ghunnah, as each ghunnah is not equal to the other in length. Ranks of the Ghunnah

The Qur'an has been passed down in authentic chains from the Prophet, to us.  These authentic chains are documented name by name, and through these chains we learn recitation of the Qur'an correctly. The science of tajweed rules was developed later to assist students in understanding how to recite the Qur'an as the Arabic tongue corrupted with time and no longer was natural to the Arabs. 

The explanation of the rules may vary from scholar to scholar, but with a strong sanad (chain of transmission) there will be not be a difference of application of rules on the whole, since it all goes back to one source. 

You are welcome and may Allah reward you. Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allah