RECITATION
Tajwīd — reciting the Qur'an as it was revealed
وَرَتِّلِ ٱلْقُرْءَانَ تَرْتِيلًا
Wa rattili-l-Qurʾāna tartīlā — al-Muzzammil 73:4
Tajwīd is the gentle craft of giving every letter its right. It is not decoration and not a test — it is care. This page walks you from the very first sound to the pause signs at the end of a verse, one calm step at a time.
Protecting the meaning
A single letter read from the wrong place can change a word entirely. Tajwīd guards the message, not just the melody.
An unbroken chain
The Qur'an was received by ear and passed on by ear, teacher to student, for fourteen centuries. Reciting well keeps you inside that chain.
A settled heart
Measured recitation slows the breath and the mind. Many people find Tajwīd turns reading into stillness.
STEP 1
Where the letters are born
Every Arabic letter has a makhraj — an exact place in the mouth or throat where it is formed. Before any rule, learn to place the letters. Everything else rests on this.
The empty space (al-Jawf)
الجوفا و ي (as madd letters)
The air in the mouth and throat carries these long vowels with no contact point.
The throat (al-Ḥalq)
الحلقء هـ · ع ح · غ خ
Deepest for ء هـ, middle for ع ح, nearest for غ خ.
The tongue (al-Lisān)
اللسانق ك ج ش ي ض ل ن ر ط د ت ص ز س ظ ذ ث
Eighteen letters shaped between the tongue and the roof of the mouth or the teeth.
The lips (ash-Shafatān)
الشفتانف ب م و
Fāʾ against the front teeth; bāʾ, mīm and wāw with the two lips.
The nasal passage (al-Khayshūm)
الخيشومghunnah of ن and م
The nasal hum that gives idghām, ikhfāʾ and iqlāb their beauty.
STEP 2
The four rules of nūn sākinah and tanwīn
This is the heart of Tajwīd. A silent nūn (نْ) — or a tanwīn (ـً ـٍ ـٌ) — behaves in one of four ways depending on the letter that follows it. Choose a rule to explore it.
Iẓhār
Clear pronunciationWhen nūn sākinah (نْ) or tanwīn is followed by one of the six throat letters.
Letters
ء هـ ع ح غ خ
How it sounds: Pronounce the nūn plainly and clearly, with no nasal prolongation and no merging.
Example
مَنْ ءَامَنَ
al-Baqarah 2:62
STEP 3
The three rules of mīm sākinah
Ikhfāʾ Shafawī
Labial concealment
Mīm sākinah (مْ) followed by bāʾ.
Bring the lips gently together without pressing, holding a two-beat ghunnah.
تَرْمِيهِم بِحِجَارَةٍ
al-Fīl 105:4
Idghām Mithlayn
Merging of like letters
Mīm sākinah followed by another mīm.
Merge the two mīms into one stressed mīm with a two-beat ghunnah.
لَهُم مَّا يَشَآءُونَ
az-Zumar 39:34
Iẓhār Shafawī
Labial clarity
Mīm sākinah followed by any letter other than م and ب.
Pronounce the mīm clearly, taking special care before wāw and fāʾ where the lips may slip.
أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ
ash-Sharḥ 94:1
STEP 4
Madd — the art of lengthening
Madd means stretching a vowel over a set number of beats. The three madd letters are ا و ي. Keep your beat steady: whatever length you choose for one madd, use it consistently for its kind.
Madd Ṭabīʿī
المد الطبيعي
The natural stretch of ا و ي when no hamzah or sukūn follows.
قَالَ
Madd Muttaṣil
المد المتصل
A madd letter followed by a hamzah in the same word — obligatory.
جَآءَ
Madd Munfaṣil
المد المنفصل
A madd letter at the end of a word, hamzah at the start of the next.
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا
Madd ʿĀriḍ li-s-Sukūn
المد العارض للسكون
A madd letter before a letter made silent because you stop there.
ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ
Madd Lāzim
المد اللازم
A madd letter followed by a permanent sukūn or shaddah — always six.
ٱلضَّآلِّينَ
Madd al-Badal
مد البدل
A hamzah precedes the madd letter, as in آمَنَ.
ءَامَنُوا
STEP 5
Qalqalah, ghunnah and the two lāms
Qalqalah
A light echo or bounce given to the letters ق ط ب ج د when they carry a sukūn. It is stronger when you stop on the letter, lighter in the middle of a word — and it never turns into a full vowel.
قُلْ أَعُوذُ · أَحَدْ
Ghunnah
The nasal hum of nūn and mīm. It is held for two full beats whenever either letter carries a shaddah, and it colours idghām, ikhfāʾ and iqlāb throughout the Qur'an.
إِنَّ · ثُمَّ
Sun and moon lām
In ال, the lām is either pronounced (moon: الْقَمَر) or silent and merged into the next letter (sun: الشَّمْس). The shaddah on the following letter tells you which.
الْحَمْدُ · الرَّحْمَٰن
STEP 6
Knowing where to pause
The small symbols printed above the line in a muṣḥaf are guidance for stopping and continuing. Reading them well keeps sentences whole and meanings clear.
Waqf Lāzim
Compulsory stop — continuing changes the meaning.
Waqf Muṭlaq
Preferred stop; the sentence is complete.
Waqf Jāʾiz
Stopping and continuing are equally permissible.
Al-Waqf Awlā
Stopping is better than continuing.
Al-Waṣl Awlā
Continuing is better than stopping.
Lā Waqf
Do not stop here; if you must, go back and repeat.
Muʿānaqah
Embracing stop — stop at one of the two dots, never both.
PRACTICE
A simple daily routine
Listen before you read
Play a short passage from a trusted reciter two or three times, following the text with your eyes and doing nothing else. Your ear learns the shape of the sound first.
Read one verse at a time
Repeat a single verse after the reciter until your rendering matches theirs. Do not move on for the sake of covering more ground.
Slow down deliberately
Recite in tartīl — measured and unhurried. Speed hides mistakes; slowness reveals them so they can be corrected.
Record and review
Record yourself once a week and compare it with the reciter. You will hear things while listening that you never notice while reciting.
Recite to a teacher
Read aloud regularly to someone qualified. A few corrected minutes are worth many uncorrected hours.
QUESTIONS
Before you begin
Now put it into practice
Open the reader, choose a short sūrah, and listen to the recitation while following the text. Apply one rule at a time.