One who wishes to learn a
science needs to know its principles so that he
will gain insight into the sought science.
There are several principles in the science of
tajweed that should be understood:
1. Its definition
By linguistic definition:
Betterment
Applied definition: Articulating every letter
from its articulation point and giving the
letter its rights and dues of characteristics.
Rights of the letters are its required
characteristics that never leave it. The dues
of the letters are its presented characteristics
that are present in it some of the time, and not
present at other times.
2. Its formation
The words of the Glorious
Quran and some said Honorable Hadith also.
3. Its fruits
It is preserving the tongue
from mistakes in pronunciation of the Glorious
Qur'an during reading.
4. Its precedence
It is one of the most
honored of sciences and one of the best of them
due to its relation to Allah’s words.
5. Its place within the sciences
It is one of the Islamic
Law sciences that are related to the Glorious
Quran.
6. Its founder
The rule setter from the
practical point of view is the Messenger of
Allah
because the Qur'an
was revealed to him from Allah, the most High,
with tajweed, and he, was instructed on it from
the Trustworthy, Jibreel, peace be upon him, and
taught it to his companions, who then taught it
to their followers and so on until it came to us
by these chains. The rule setters from the
scientific point of view are the scholars of
Quranic sciences, such as Abu Ubaid Al-Qasim bin
Salaam.
7. Its precept
Knowledge of tajweed is
fardh kifayaah, meaning some of the Muslim
community must know it, and its application is
fardh ‘ain, required by all Muslims (men and
women) who have the complete Qur'an or part of
it memorized, even if only one surah.
8. Reasons for its rules
Guarding the Glorious
Qur'an and preserving it from distortion. The
Arabs mixed with non-Arabs after the spread of
Islam, and the Muslims feared that the Arab
tongue would become corrupted with this
intermixing. It then became mandatory for rules
to be put down that would preserve the
recitation of the Qur'an from mistakes, and
guarantee the reader of the Qur'an integrity of
pronunciation.
9. Its principles
The knowledge of tajweed is
contingent on four matters:
1. Knowledge of the articulation points of the
letters
2. Knowledge of the characteristics of the
letters
3. Knowledge of what rules change in the letters
due to the order of letters
4. Exercising the tongue and a lot of
repetition. |
