The Importance of Tajweed

Tajweed is the science and art of reading the Qur’an. The word tajweed itself means proficiency. It means giving every single letter of the Qur’an its due respect when being recited. There are a number of important reasons why tajweed is so important.

The Qur’an is the Word of Allah (saw)

Every single vowel, consonant, syllable, etc in the Qur’an is part of the divine speech. This is all from Allah (swt). 1400 years after the revelation of the Qur’an and it’s still intact. The main purpose of tajweed is to give the reader the correct way of pronouncing every single syllable with the rules that Allah (swt) applied. Through all of this, the reciter can read the Qur’an without changing the way the Prophet (saw) read it. Allah (swt) says in Surah Muzammil, “Recite the Qur’an with measured recitation.”

The Appearance Of Angel Jibreel

When the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet (saw), it was revealed in full tajweed. Angel Jibreel recited the Qur’an to the Prophet (saw) the proper way and instructed our beloved Prophet (saw) to recite it in the same way he was reading it. Hence, it’s obligatory on all of us to recite the Qur’an properly with the rules of tajweed.

Tajweed will Help you Avoid Mistakes

Reading the Qur’an with tajweed is a major requirement to keep away from the major mistakes in reciting the Qur’an. There are two types of errors people make when reading: the clear mistakes and the hidden mistakes. Clear mistakes are usually blatantly obvious and can change entire words’ meanings. Hidden mistakes on the other hand are harder to catch. There is a consensus among the scholars in the opinion that tajweed being applied to avoid the clear mistakes is an individual obligation (Fard Ayn), while applying the rules of tajweed to avoid the hidden mistakes is a collective obligation (Fard Kifayah)

The rules of Tajweed

Observing the rules of Tajweed in reciting prevents the reciter from making mistakes in reciting the Quran or change the words’ meaning during the recitation. Every Arabic letter has an articulation point from which it originates, called the Makhraj and attributes called the Sifaat. The knowledge is an important step to learn of Tajweed.