What is Istilaa?

Thick pronouncing of these 7 letters    خ  غ ق   ط ظ   ص ض   are called Istilaa. It is also called heavy or bold pronouncing. While pronouncing thick letters vowel sign 'fatha' have to keep silent & 2 lips have to slightly 'round' like you are going to whistle by lips. See below examples for more clarification.

Listen below ayah from Sura Fatiha to realize how reciter pronouncing blue letters of Istilaa.

Rule Of Raw & Laam ل ر 

There are two more Thick letters ر  and ل . But this Thick pronouncing happen conditionally not always like Istilaa letters. See below for details.

 When ر 'Raw' should pronounce Thick? 

If Raw comes with fatha & damma it always have to  read as thick. Otherwise if Raw has kasra with it then it should always have to read as light.

Now listen below ayah to realize how reciter pronouncing Raw fatha Raw as 'Rawbbil a'lami-n' not 'Raabil a'lami-n'.

 

 When ل 'Laam' should pronounce Thick? 

Laam have to pronounce thick only with a single word  Allah. If fatha and damma comes before Laam of word Allah, Laam have to recite as thick (like law), otherwise if kasra comes before Laam of word Allah, Laam have to recite as light (like laa). In all other words Laam always act as light letter. For more clarification listen below ayahs.

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What is Gunna?

Gunna mean Nasalization and Nasalization mean sounding from nose. Holding extra 1 second on a specific letter from nose sound without breath out is called 'Gunna' or 'Ghunnah'. For example, say 'In-' and  hold on 'n' extra  1 second from nose which is indicated by dash (-) then say 'na', so what  you have said? 'In-na', this extra 1 second holding on 'n' with nose sound like 'Innna' is called gunna. There are 4 type of gunna such as, Gunna of Wajib, Ikhfa, Idgham and Iqlab. See below example.

For more clarification and understandings listen below audio and concentrate on blue colored letters to realize how reciter doing Gunna.

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• What is Wajib Gunna?
• What is Iqlab?
• What is Ikhfa?
• What is Idgham?

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What is Wajib Gunna?

If  م  Mim and Noon  ن  containTashdid over them ( مّ   نّـ ) doing Gunna is wajib there. Leaving wajib could be sin, so wherever you see Tashdid over Mim and Noon do Gunna. This is called Wajib Gunna. See below,

To realize how Gunna should pronounce listen above ayah and concentrate on blue colored places, all those are Wajib Gunna. If you not yet know or forget what is Gunna see here.

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Rules of Stopping Signs

In Arabic stopping signs are called Waqf. Arabic alphabets are used as waqf signs. Waqf are very important because it make sentences meaningful, otherwise it could seem meaningless. On the other hand wrong use of stopping signs could change sentences meaning.

 

What are the rules for stopping anywhere without any Waqf sign?

For taking new breath you can stop anywhere without any waqf signs, but while it could change meaning, after taking new breath start reading from 1 or 2 words behind. 

See below for meaning of important Waqf signs. Always be careful on red signs.

Now see red colored signs in below ayah to realize how Waqf signs are looks likes in Qur'an.

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Rules of Round Taa

Round Taa need to be read as Round Ha with sakin, When? When stopping on Round Taa  , Taa have to read as    Ha Sakin, but if you not stop on 'Round Taa', it have to read as it is Taa. 

For example, this word  'raw-diatan', has 'round taa' as last letter, no matter if it has, fatha, kasra or damma, if you stop on this, it have to read as 'raw-diah', 'Round Taa' have changed to 'Ha Sakin'. Remember, if you not stop on this, it have to read 'Taa' as it is.

For more clarification listen below ayah. 

While listening above audio, concentrate on English spelling colored as red and blue, reciter pronouncing red round 'Taa' as 'Taa' because he not stopping on that, but blue round 'Taa' pronouncing as 'Ha Sakin' because he stopping on that.

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What is Qalqalah?

When these five  ب ط ق د ج  letters comes with sakin , pronunciation of those letters have to do like slightly bounced, but not repeated, bounced only once, in other words, sound like slightly 'echoing', only once, not repeated echo. This type of sound called Qalqalah. See below examples for more clarification.

Now see and listen below ayahs to realize how reciter pronouncing Qalqalah. Blue colored are Qalqalah letters.

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Rules of Reading Mim Sakin

  Mim sakin have to read with gunna if letter ب 'Ba' comes after it. This rule is called Ikhfa of mim sakin. See below for example. For red 'Ba', blue mim sakin have to read with gunna. 

For more clarification and understandings, listen above audio and concentrate on colored places to realize how reciter doing gunna.

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Rules of Reading Noon Sakin

Noon Sakin is one of the frequently appeared tajweed in Quran. Where there is a Noon Sakin there must be a rule, so whenever you see a Noon Sakin slow down your read then see what letter came after it to decide which rule have to apply here. There are 4 rule of reading Noon Sakin 1) Iqlab, 2) Ikhfa, 3) Idgham and 4) Izhar.

1) What is Iqlab?

If letter ب 'Ba' comes after noon sakin  , noon sakin have to pronounce as mim sakin  . This rule is called 'Iqlab'. For example word 'Manbakhila' has 'Ba' after noon sakin, so now it have to pronounce as 'Mammbakhila' with gunna, extra m is indication for gunna.

2) What is Ikhfa?

If below 15 letters comes after noon sakin  , you have to pronounce noon sakin as 'ing-' with gunna.

This  rule  is called  'Ikhfa'  of  noon sakin. For example, word   'aanta'  has ikhfa letter 'taa' after noon sakin, so now you have to pronounce that word as 'aang-ta' with gunna, dash - is indicator for keep saying 'aang-' (slightly from nose) one second more than original pronounce 'aang' to do gunna.

Now see below examples. For red Ikhfa letters after blue and yellow noon sakin you have to pronounce noon sakin as 'ing-' with gunna slightly from nose sound. Listen below audio to realize how reciter pronouncing Ikhfa.

3) What is Idgham?

If below 6 letters comes after    noon sakin, all those letters have to read with 'tashdid'    , If 

there is no tashdid you have to imagine a tashdid. Four of those ى و م ن have to read with gunna and others two ل  &  ر  have to read without gunna. This rule is called 'Idgham' of noon sakin. See below for more clarification.

Now see in below ayah, blue noon sakin is not present in English spelling, because of 'Idgham' letters (red) came after it. Green letters directly joining red letters. Remember: if anywhere sakin letter comes before tashdid letter, sakin letter will be silent, no need to read sakin letter anymore.

While listening audio concentrate on colored places to realize how reciter pronouncing Idgham with and without gunna.

4) What is Izhar?

If these  ء غ ع خ ح ه  six letters comes after noon sakin   , then pronunciation of noon sakin will be same as it is, no need to change it to anything else. This rule is called 'Izhar' of noon sakin.

Now see below example, For presence of Izhar letter (red), noon sakin (blue) have to pronounce clearly same as noon, like 'n' as 'n', not changing this time to anything else.

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What is Makhraj?

From the places of mouth and throat where from Arabic letters pronounced is called Makhraj. 29 letters  pronounced from 17 areas of mouth & throat. If pronunciation of one letter sound like another, meaning of that word will change which is called big mistake in Quran reading. 

We know, not all letters has conflict with each others. For example 'Seen', 'Sheen', 'Saud', 'Tha' creates similar pronunciation like 'S' but 'Ba', 'Fa' 'Noon' has no conflict with others, so you don't have to worry about 'Ba' 'Fa' 'Noon', but have to worry about 'Seen' 'Sheen' 'Saud'  'Geem' 'Jaa' 'Ha' 'Round Ha' etc which conflict each others. So here we only discuss and show simple ways to avoid mixing of the conflicting letters.

Play below ayah to realize Alif and A'in pronunciation differences. Blue colored are Alif (Hamza) and red are A'in.

Presence of both 'HA' in above ayah, play to realize the differences. Red colored are 'HA' & blue are 'Round HA'.

Play above ayah to realize differences between 'Kaaf' and 'Qauf'. Red colored are Kaaf & blue are Qauf.

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What is Arji Sakin?

If stopping letter contain any one of the below signs, 

you have to replace that with a Sakin (imagined), that Sakin (imagined) is called Arji Sakin. 

Exception: If there is double fatha  or Madd (click here to learn what is madd) this rule will not applicable.

For example, this word 'Nastayi-nu' has damma (red) on last letter. Now if you want to stop on this word, you have to replace red damma with an imagined sakin like this    and pronounce that as 'Nastayi-n'.

See examples below with 2 ayah from Sura Fatiha and how to read those with or without arji sakin.

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