Question/Comment
Salam,
Jzkk for the site. IMHO (in my humble opinion), you should give flexibility to Muslims on the proper
way to read Al Qur’an. I understand that you wish to promote Hafs an 'Asim
by the way of Shatabiah, but on the other hand, you are not making it easy for
the people to try their best to read Al Qur’an.
Al Qur’an is not for the the elite of the muslimoon. Allah had
revealed Al Qur'an to mankind. It is not reserved for shuyookh per se.
For example, I found out that Husary made his mud jaiz munfassil two
harakaat in most of his qiraat. It really made my life easier and I
don’t have to stop unnecessarily. You already mentioned that the knowledge
of tajweed is fardh kifayah but practicing it is fardh 'ain, so it is not
obligatory for ALL Muslims to know the mechanics of tajweed.
Why don't you make it easy for the people, telling them it is okay to read the
mud j aiz munfassil as two harakaat rather than sternly saying "this is
not our opinion". We should make people love Al Qur’an not shy away
from them.
I once read mud jaiz with two harakaat and one brother came up to me and
interrogated me and somewhat "forced" his opinion of mud jaiz
munfassil as four or five. Now, is this the spirit of Al Qur’an?
One more thing, the site on most common error in tajweed. IMHO, there are many
non Arab readers and syuyukh especially in
Mauritania
and
Senegal
. We have been trying to eradicate the dogma that Al Qur’an is for
Arabs only and I don't think by classifying readers of Al Qur’an as Arab and
non Arab as tactful.
Reading
with tajweed is a skill. It is not innate or inherent. I don't hear any Arab
who goes to learn tajweed had to skip the makharij of huruf class.
IMHO, the first mistake that many Al Qur’an teacher of institution make is
to give the notion that Al Qur’an is difficult or the Arabic language for
that matter. This is clearly not in line with what Allah has said, "wa
laqad yassarnal Qurana lidhikri fa hal mim muddakir".
Next, I think you ought to give alternatives. It is good that you are telling
the people they ought to find a certified teacher to teach them Al Qur’an.
The next best thing is to provide them addresses, Islamic centers or
cities in the
USA
(if this site is USA-based) where these individuals can be found.
It is bad enough that we common people are being criticised for not reading
with tajweed, at least tell us where to go. JazakAllahu khairan for your
effort, may Allah accept it as a good deed.
Answer
Wa
alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakaatuh.
Wa iyyakum.
We have no objections to viewers of the site commenting on the material,
giving feedback, and pointing out any shortcomings or mistakes.
Verily we are human, and surely we make mistakes, and we welcome any
corrections to errors. On the
other hand, we feel that many of your points are not based on what has been
said on the site, but instead based on some misunderstandings you may have.
First,
this site is a site aimed at teaching English speaking Muslims the rules of
tajweed. Those visiting our site
are presumed to be students of the Qur’an wanting to learn and understand
tajweed rules. We endeavor, and
may Allah make it successful, to explain and teach the details of tajweed for
those wishing to learn and implement them and we offer no apologies for this.
We certainly are not trying to make it difficult, but there are certain
parts of the recitation of the Qur’an which are not allowed, some that are
allowed under certain circumstances, and others that are allowed at all times.
Changing one letter to another by mispronouncing it is one mistake that
is not allowed. It is a matter of
fact that Arabs, although they do study the articulation points of letters
when starting tajweed, have much fewer problems in this area, if any,
depending on their background. Non-Arabs
in general, have to put more effort in this area to perfect their recitation.
This is not in any contradiction to the aayaat in surah Al-Qamar
(54:17, 22, 32, and 40), which is referring to memorization of the Qur’an. 
The
translation of the explanation of the meaning is:
"And We have certainly made the Qur'an easy for remembrance, so is
there any who will remember?" Certainly, the Qur’an is far easier to memorize than any thing else.
A student who is trying to memorize the Qur’an and at the same time
memorize the poem on tajweed by Imam Ibn Al-Jazaree will readily attest to
this fact .
We
have never stated that reading
with two counts is not
allowed, indeed it is allowed by Hafs in tareeq at-tayyibah, but you need to
know all the rules on different words to read this way.
For example, some words have two ways allowed for Hafs ‘an ‘Aasim
min tareeq Ash-Shattibiyyah, but only one way is allowed when reading the two
count
with
four counts in
, such as the word
, which when continuing can be read with either
tafkheem or tarqeeq of the
by the way of Shatibiyyah, but in tareeq At-Tayyibah
with two counts for
and
four for
it
can only be read with tafkheem. These
are ways of transmission that have been passed down from the Messenger
to
us, one by one in authentic chains. We cannot take something from one way, and
mix it with another and make our own tareeq that we find “easy”, but we
can learn the intricacies of each way, and apply them in our reading while
reading with the qasr of
, it is not difficult to
do, but has to be done this way if we wish to preserve each way as it was
revealed. This is different than
tajweed rules; this is preservation of the Qur’an and not mixing up one way
with another.
The
vast majority of Muslims read the Qur’an with the recitation of Hafs ‘an
‘Aasim min tareeq Ash-Shatibiyyah. It
is logical then, that we explain this way first so those studying tajweed can
easily find teachers who recite in the same way.
Please
look at the lesson: http://www.abouttajweed.com/al-mudood_part_6_medd_waajib_jaa'iz.htm
on this site, and review what was stated about reading
with
two counts.
We have pointed out
common mistakes that non-Arabs make to help the non-Arabs conquer these
mistakes and read the Qur’an as it was revealed, the ultimate goal of all
Muslims. We indeed pointed out that many Arabs do not know proper tajweed, a
sad fact, in the following section: Do all Arabs know how to recite the
Qur’an with proper tajweed?
Unfortunately
many do not know proper tajweed. In
the days of the Prophet, peace and blessing upon him, there was no need for
the study of tajweed because they talked with what is now known as tajweed; in
other words, it was natural for them. Now,
over 14 centuries later, colloquial Arabic has changed radically from the
classical Arabic with which the Qur’an was revealed, and Arabs have to study
tajweed, just in the same way that non-Arabs do.
http://www.abouttajweed.com/howlearn.htm
We have years
of experience in teaching non-Arabs and there are mistakes common to non-Arabs
not found in Arabs. This is a
reality, and we are only trying to help non-Arab Muslims surpass these mistakes
and correct their reading, which is certainly possible. There are many cases
that we know of personally where non-Arabs have fixed their mistakes and
surpassed many Arabs in their recitation.
We know of Americans, Canadians, Turks, South Africans, Australians,
Pakistanis, Philippinos, and other nationalities who read the Qur’an with
excellent tajweed; some of them have actually gone on to teach Arabs
tajweed of the Qur’an. There is
no limit by native language in obtaining excellence in recitation of the
Qur’an, but there are some areas that may need special attention before this
excellence is achieved. We would
be deficient in teaching if we did
not point this out, and we are obligated to assist in this subject for those
who wish to reach the goal of reciting the Qur’an as it was revealed.
This
site is visited and used by Muslims from all over the world, and is not aimed
at one particular country. We are
not based in the
USA
and therefore are not able to give guidance on where good Qur’an teachers
are located in the
USA
. It would be difficult for
one entity to find out every Islamic Center that had qualified Qur’an
instructors in the
US
, since it is so vast and the centers would have to be visited before there
were to be recommended. It
is up to the student of knowledge to seek out teachers and travel to find
teachers when necessary. In the
day of the Internet, it is possible to find a teacher to help you without you
leaving your home, unlike scholars of the past who would travel for months to
obtain knowledge.
We
suggest that you read the following question and answer on etiquette of
seeking knowledge:
http://www.islam-qa.com/QA/8|Manners(Aadaab)/Aadab_Talb_al-'Ilm_(Manners_of_Seeking_Knowledge)/Etiquette_of_the_seeker_of_knowledge.20052001.10324.shtml
plus download and read the PDF from this site on Manners of the Those Seeking
Knowledge and Students of the Qur’an. http://www.abouttajweed.com/The%20Manners%20of%20those%20Seeking%20Knowledge%20and%20Students%20of%20the%20Qur.pdf
Wa iyyakum.
