Tajweed - Part Two

I’ve never been a “Qur’an person.” Some people just love the Qur'an – listening to it, reciting it, learning the rules of recitation, memorising it. I was never one of these people. I spent more time listening to dhikr, qasidas/naats, and Islamic lectures. 

However, over the past two and-a-half months I’ve been immersed in the recitation of the Qur’an through taking a five days-a-week tajweed class in Cairo. And while I am still a beginner in the science of reciting the Qur’an, I feel that I’m filling a hole in my religious life by reciting the Qur’an in class and outside of class.

Something that I can share from my experience with my teacher Shaykh Ahmad is that reciting the Qur’an properly (according to the rules of tajweed) requires an enormous amount of energy. Good reciting is energetic – moving the tongue, lips, and mouth in the ways necessary to articulate the different Arabic letters. Bad reciting is lazy. Laziness cannot not produce good reciting.

Another point about Qur’an recitation is that it teaches one patience. Reciting the Qur’an with tajweed means giving each letter its due. This means articulating the sounds slowly and carefully. I’m only now practicing giving each letter its due. For the first two months I was going through verses quickly, especially the meem and laam sakin. As Shaykh Ahmad says, “Ridwan, it’s as if you're paying money for articulating each letter and you don’t want to give much money.” But now I find myself reciting slowly and calmly and it feels so good to recite the Qur’an like this - it’s very soothing.

May God grant us nearness to the Qur'an. May He grant us patience and energy to recite it properly. Aameen