The Ruling of Tajwīd

By Sheikh Ramaḍān Al-Būṭī

Question: What is the ruling in the Revealed Law regarding someone who recites the Book of Allah without applying the rules of tajwīd? Is learning these rules obligatory upon every Muslim?

Answer: The obligation with regards to reciting the Qurʾān:

1) Oral transmission from a reciter who has transmitted the Qurʾān from a reciter before him. In other words, when reciting the Qurʾān it is not permissible to merely rely on the Arab culture that we rely on when reading magazines and general books.

2)The tajwīd of recitation is obligatory within the scope of making the exit points of the letters[1] accurate, such as distinguishing between dhal and zāy and between sīn and thāʾ, as well as the difference between the heavy rāʾ and the light raʾ and between the alif lam of the sun letters and that of the moon letters.[2] As for the ruling of assimilation,[3] concealment,[4] manifestation,[5] elongation[6] and similar matters, they are from the perfections that are advisable to incorporate into one’s recitation.

[Translated from Maʿ An-Nās: Mashūrāt wa Fatāwā (Damascus: Dar Al-Fikr, 1999) v.1 p.39]

Update: A copy of this translated fatwā can now be found on the English version of www.naseemalsham.com.

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[1] (tn): Ar. makhārij al-ḥurūf

[2] (tn): See http://www.arabic-keyboard.org/arabic/sun-and-moon-letters.php

[3] (tn): Ar. idghām

[4] (tn): Ar. ikhfāʾ

[5] (tn): Ar. iẓhār

[6] (tn): Ar. mudūd