What
are common mistakes in Tajweed that non-Arabs make?
The
most common mistakes are in the letters themselves, meaning using the wrong
articulation point for a letter, as well as improper timing of vowels (i.e.
lengthening a vowel longer than one vowel count), and natural lengthenings
(making them shorter than they should be).
Each vowel over a letter receives one count.
So a dhammah receives the same timing as a kasrah, as does a fath, as
long as these letters are not followed by the medd letters (alif
;
or a ya' with no vowel preceded by
a kasrah,
or
wow with no vowel preceded by a dhammah).
Medd
letters have two vowel counts if they are not followed by a hamzah or a sukoon.
In this word, each vowel is
equal in timing to the next; in other words, this word would have three vowel
counts to it. We can notice that
there are no medd letters in this word, so there is no elongation of the vowels.
This
word also has each vowel equal in timing to the next, or three vowel counts.
Again, there are no medd letters here, so there is no elongation of the vowels.
In summary, the timing for the first word above is equal to the second
word, even though there are different vowels used.
All vowels, as stated
above, have equal timing in length. This
is not true for letters without vowels, or saakin letters.
The timings of saakin letters vary depending on their characteristics.
The difference is in not a great length of time, though.
For the time being we will not be discussing medd letters, but will
return to them later. Saakin letters are divided into three groups when
determining their timing. The three
groups are:
1.
The group of strength
2.
The middle group
3.
The soft group
The group of strength
letters is the group of letters that have imprisonment of the sound when
pronounced. When these letters have
no vowel on them (a sukoon) their timing is short.
The letters of this group are:
, and are combined in the
phrase:
The middle group of
letters is those that do not have a complete running of the sound, yet they do
not have complete imprisonment of the sound like the group of strength letters.
These letters therefore have a middle length of time when there is no
vowel (a sukoon) on them. The letters of this group are:
, and are combined in the
phrase:
The soft group of
letters is the remaining Arabic letters. This
group has a running of the sound when they are without a vowel (saakin), and
have the longest timing on them.
In summary, all
vowels have equal length in time, unless a medd letter follows them.
When letters (outside of the medd letters) have a sukoon, meaning they
have no vowel, their timings are different in length, depending on which of the
three groups they are in. The
shortest timing is in the group of strength
, the next longest is the middle
group
, and the longest is the group
of softness
.
All letters of the middle group are equal in timing to each other; all
letters of the soft group are equal to each other in timing.
All of the strength group of letters are equal in timing to each other,
but the two letters
have air released after they are
pronounced.