Question

I have a question concerning the stop (waqf) represented by the letter sawd.  When I encounter this symbol I generally take a breath and move on, however my teacher says that I have to go back one or two words and then continue. When I listen to the recitors they just stop and keep reciting without going back.  What should I do?

Answer

First of all, we want to apologize for the delay in answering this question.  There appears to have been a problem in the email forwarding process, and the question was just found today.

There are many different marking for stops in the Glorious Qur’an, most of them indicate that a stop may be made at the word below the mark.  If the little letter or word above the word is:  or , in the Medinah copy of the Qur’an, the stop is either taam (complete) or kaafee (sufficient), and the stop is preferred.  If the little letter above the word is a , then it is a waqf laazim, or required stop, so as not to change the meaning. 

When the mark above the word is a small , it means one of two things.  Either we should not stop there at all, or we should not begin there after stopping and taking a breath on a different word, or that same word. 

The Medinah copy of the Qur’an has the most accurate stop markings which were put in by some of the top scholars of the Qur’an.  If you do not use a Medinah copy of the Qur’an, we highly recommend that you switch to it.