Fathah: straight stroke on top of a letter, pronounced like the 'a' as in "bat". The common mistake is to pronounce it as the 'a' in "ball", thus making it heavy. Bear in mind that heavy letters are only a minority (7 of 28), so for most cases pick up the "bat" and throw the "ball" away. Trust me on this.

Kasrah: straight stroke below a letter, pronounced as the 'e' in "bee" & not as the 'ay' in "bay". Say Bismillah. Go ahead, I'm waiting. See? Did you say "base"millah (really bad)? or "bes"millah (still wrong)? or "bis"millah(correct) as in "biscuit"?
Imagine it is night-time & you are standing at the shore of a "bay" when a "bee" attacks you from behind. You have two options: jump in the "bay" or fight the "bee". Well, if you are carrying the "bat" from the first vowel, you can easily fight the "bee".

Dammah: looks almost like a '9' & found above the letter. It is pronounced as the 'oo' in "moon". This requires that your lips make a complete circle as they extend outwards. Try imitating Lifesavers. Don't eat 'em though - not halal. Anyways, whatever you do, don't pronounce it like the 'o' in "moan". Hence, the spelling 'Mohammed' is wrong. It should really be 'Muhammed'.

So after fighting the "bee" with your "bat", you look at the beautiful "moon" and praise Allah. For either the "ball" or the "bay" would have had you "moan"ing right now.

There are two types of madd: fard (obligatory: you have to recite it) and mustahab (recommended: you should recite it). The general rule is that a madd inside a word is fard, while a madd that connects two words is mustahab.

For example, in Surah Baqarah, Allah says:

Translation: Reveal the names if you are true. [Surah Baqarah, verse 31]

the word [هَؤُلاء] contains two madh in the middle of the word (they are part of the word)--so you should always extend them in your recitation.

Meanwhile, in another verse of Surah Baqarah, Allah says:

Translation: Those who believe in what was revealed to them and what was revealed before them and in the Akhira they have certainty. [Surah Baqarah, verse 4]

Here, we see a madd that connects two words, [مَا] and [أُنْزِلَ], so it is recommended to extend the alif sound.

Also, madd most commonly occurs when you have an alif, waw, or ya, followed by a hamza--these vowels recieve madd.

Wallahu ta'ala 'alim.

However, there's also another type of ya--the ya without dots, which looks like this: ى. As for that ya, sometimes pronounced as a ya, and sometimes, as an alif (ا).

For example, the word على (ayn-lam-ya) can be read as 'ala (on top: عَلَى) or as 'Ali (as in the name: عَلِي). So how do you know when to pronounce it as a ya, and when to pronounce it as an alif?

There are two signs that indicate that it's a ya:

1. Dots: If the ya has two dots under it, it's a ya!
2. Harakat: If the letter before the ya has a fatha on it, then the ya is pronounced as an alif; if the letter before has a kasra, then the ya is pronounced as a ya.

And if you understand Arabic enough to get the context of the sentence, that helps too.

Qalqala is best described as an "echo noise" or "bouncing noise". There are five qalqala letters. If any of them appears with a sukoon on top, you perform qalqala. (Prime example, if you have no idea what qalqala is: the end of the last word of every verse in Surah Ikhlass.)

Qalqala letters: qaff (ق), ba (ب), taw (ط), jeem (ج), and dal (د).

The mnemonic to remember them is "qutb jadd" (قطب جَدّ). Qutb means "pole", jadd means "grandfather". Grandfather pole...

Some letters are easy to do qalqala on -- even qaris (reciters) make mistakes on them! Learn them and avoid them. (To stop yourself from doing a qalala on a letter, simply stop on the letter.)

Common qalala mistakes: 'ayn (ع), daad (ض), ta (ت), and kaf (ك)

May Allah accept our reading of the Qur'an as 'ibadah. Ameen.