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The (Hiding) of the  Saakinah and Tanween

This lesson defines the , the last of the four rules for the  saakinah and tanween.  The three other rules  saakinah and tanween and their explanations are located in the tidbit archives link. 

The  is linguistically defined as: hiding or concealment 

The applied definition of the  is: The pronunciation of a non-voweled letter stripped of any shaddah, characterized somewhere between an and an  with a ghunnah remaining on the first letter, in this case the  saakinah and the tanween.

The letters of the  for the  saakinah and tanween are all the remaining letters in the Arabic alphabet after we remove the letters that cause , , and .  There are 15 letters in the Arabic alphabet, all causing , or hiding of the  saakinah and tanween; they are: 
If a  saakinah or tanween is followed by any of these 15 letters, we hide the .  The  can take place between two words (as will always be the case with the tanween) or in the middle of a word.  To hide the  our tongue does not touch the teeth or gum, instead our tongue moves close to, but not at, the articulation point of the next letter, which is the letter causing the  (hiding).  We then hold this sound with an accompanying ghunnah (nasalization) for the amount of timing appropriate for the .  The  (or hiding) of the  saakinah or tanween is also known as .

The technique of the of the  takes practice to perfect.  There is no difference in the  or in the technique of the  whether it is a written  that is being hidden, or a tanween.  Some students simply keep their tongue at the articulation point of the  during the , and prolong the sound with a ghunnah (nasalization).  This is not the correct technique.  Others let the back portion of the tongue rise up to the roof of the mouth and rest it there, which is again, incorrect.  The tongue shouldn’t be touching the roof, gums, or teeth, but should be close to the articulation point of the next letter, as stating previously. 

Examples of the  of the  saakinah and tanween:

Click here to listen to aayah

In this example above, there is a  saakinah in the middle of the second word, followed by the letter , one of the letters of .  We don’t let our tongue touch the articulation point of the , but instead put our tongue in a position close to, but not touching the articulation point of the letter , and hold this sound with a ghunnah for a period of time.  The exact period of time cannot be explained in writing, but instead should be learned and copied from a qualified Qur’an teacher.  It is not correct to state that the ghunnah is held for two counts.

Click here to listen to aayah

In this example there is a tanween at the end of the second word, followed by a  as the first letter of the next following word.  The is one of the letters that causes hiding of the  saakinah and tanween.  The technique is similar to that described above, except our tongue should get close to the articulation point of the  instead of the .

Click here to listen to aayah

This aayah has a  saakinah as the last letter of the first word, it is followed by a , which is one of the letters that causes hiding of the  saakinah.  Again, as previously stated, we don’t let our tongue go to the articulation point of the , but instead bring our tongue close to, but not touching, the , and hold the sound with an accompanying ghunnah for the appropriate period of time.