Question
Assalamu
alaykum wa rahmatullah. Thank you indeed for your help in answering previous
questions.
Today I need your help concerning pronunciation:
1)
It seems that the sound "la" in the name "Allah,"
Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, is different from other sounds "la" when
it is preceded by a fathah or dhammah. I heard that is it a way of glorifying
the name of our Lord. But I do not understand why then the same principle is
not applied when the "la" is preceded by a kasrah (a letter having
the vowel i).
2)
The sound "ra"
(letter ra with fathah) is pronounced a little like "ro" while there
is no particular change (apparently) when the letter is voweled with i or u.
What can be the reason?
3)
Why are the sakinah form the
letters jim, dal, ba, etc. (the qalqalah letters?) pronounced heavily, as if
they had a vowel, especially at the end of a word?
Thank you again for your help, Wassalam.
Answer
Wa
'alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu-llahi wa barakatuhu.
You are most welcome.
1)
The
of
the Glorious name “Allah” and the immediately following alif do indeed
acquire heaviness, or “tafkheem” (transliteration of
), when preceded by a
dhammah or fath. This same
and
alif do not acquire the heaviness when preceded by a kasrah, in other words,
it is light, or has “tarqeeq” (transliteration of
).
Certainly, the name of Allah becomes magnified with the tafkheem, but we
cannot state a reason for the heaviness on the
and
alif when preceded by a fat-h or dhammah and the absence of this tafkheem when
preceded by a kasrah other than this is the way the Prophet
recited
the Qur’an, and how it was passed down from Muslim to Muslim.
There is no explanation by the Prophet himself, so any explanation is
ijtihad. If we look for a reason, we end up with unanswerable questions.
2)
The letter
is
a letter that has tafkheem () or heaviness in some
cases and
(tarqeeq)
or lightness in other cases. Whenever
the
has
a fat-h or dhammah on it, there is tafkheem; when there is a kasrah on it,
there is tarqeeq. When the
is
saakinah, for the most part, we look at the vowel on the letter before it, to
determine whether it has tafkheem or tarqeeq.
It isn’t as simple as that, but this is a summary.
If we look at the definition of tafkheem, we see that it is: a heaviness (fatness) that enters the body of the
letter, so that the mouth is filled with its reverberation (echo).
The three steps of
tafkheem were listed in a response to a question posted yesterday, please
refer to that response. You may
note that none of the steps include a circling of the lips.
There are two comments we would like to make:
A. Some students of the Qur’an mistakenly
try to make the sound of
, or heaviness, by
circling their lips. This is
incorrect, and in effect, changes the vowel of the letter except of course, if
the letter has a dhammah on it.
B. The sound of
is
perceived by some to be the sound of a dhammah. This is especially true for beginning students who are not
yet adept at imitating the heavy sound correctly.
3.)
The letters of qalqalah are the letters in the group:
.
The qalqalah is defined as: A disturbance
of the letter when it is in the state of being non-voweled until a strong
accent is heard when it is articulated by parting of the two components of the
articulating parts, not by collision, without accompanying it any opening of
the mouth, or circling of the lips, or lowering of the jaw.
The
qalqalah is therefore applied only when any of the five letters of the group
have
a sukoon on them. The qalqalah is
stronger when it is the last letter of a word and we are stopping on that
word. You may note from the definition that a saakin letter of
qalqalah is not considered fully in the category of saakin letters which
normally are produced by collision
(
) of the two articulating parts
of the letter, nor is it fully in the voweled category of letters which have
an accompanying mouth or jaw movement with the letter.
The sound you hear is the actual qalqalah, but there should be not
vowel accompanying it, just a separation
(
) of
the two articulation parts.
Masha’
Allah, you have an astute ear;
may Allah grant that you use it His path and may Allah make easy for
you the recitation of the Qur’an as it was revealed to our beloved Prophet,
.
Wa assalaam alaikum wa rahmatu-llahi wa barakatuhu.
