Ilm Fruits
Tajweed: Different Stops
September 4, 2008 on 9:25 am | In Ibadah, Islam, Salaah| By Ilm Seeker
In this great month of Ramadan, people will be reciting the Qur'an more, insha'Allah. While we recommend everybody to get a colour-coded Arabic-text mushaaf--because it makes it easy to recite with 100% perfect tajweed once you learn the rules--sometimes, deciphering some of the symbols can be a bit tricky.
In this first post, we're going to insha'Allah discuss different stops in the mushaf. You may have seen these stop symbols: tiny little letters (meem, qaaf+lam, jeem, saad+lam, lam+alif) written above the text. These five correspond roughly to the five ahkaam taklifee--fard, mustahab, mubah, makrooh, and haraam.
Meem Stop: The meem stop looks like a tiny letter meem. Here's an ayah with a meem stop (red meem above the blue word):
A meem-stop is like a fard thing; you have to stop on that word. You cannot continue. So stop!
Qaf-Lam Stop: The qaf-lam stop looks like the letters qaf and lam joined together with a little squiggly line underneath. Here's an ayah with it:
The qaf-lam stop is like a mustahab/sunnah thing; you don't have to stop, but it's better if you do. So stop!
Jeem Stop: The jeem stop is a small jeem. Here's an ayah with it:
The jeem stop is like a mubah thing; you can stop or not stop, there's no recommendation either way. It's up to you if you want to stop or not. (Maybe they put it in to show that you can stop there; us non-Arabs, how would we know otherwise where we can stop, without butchering the text?)
Saad-Lam Stop: The saad-lam stop looks like the qaf-lam stop (except with a saad instead of a qaf)--it has a little squiggly line underneath. Here's an ayah:
The saad-lam stop is like a makrooh thing; you can stop, but it's recommended you don't stop. (It's not really a stop, more like an anti-stop, an "ok, you can stop, but it's better if you don't.") This is similar to a makrooh action, where you get no sin for doing it, but a reward for avoiding it.
Lam-Alif Stop: The lam-alif stop is really the word "laa," meaning "No!" Here's an example:
The laa stop is like a haraam thing (sort of). Don't stop on the laa! Read past it!
But what if you do stop? The confusing reality is, you can stop on the laa; but try not to. If you do end up stopping, then go back and read the verse again. When you see these, DON'T STOP! If you know they're coming, take a deeep breath, and recite past them.
The final stop is, well, a triangle stop. The triangle stop looks like a triangle made up of three dots, like so:
You can see that there are two of these guys--they always work in pairs. One is over the word "rayba," and one is over "fiyhi." It's a mubah stop; you can stop, or not stop; but if you stop, stop at either one of the words, NOT both!
So in this example, you can stop after "rayb." That would give this verse the meaning: "This is the book without doubt; in it is guidance for the believers." If you stopped after the second word, "fiyhi," you get: "This is the book with no doubt in it; guidance for the believers." Kinda similar, kinda different!
Before we conclude, we'd like to reiterate: we are NOT saying it's fard, haram, etc. to stop or not stop in certain places. Rather, we are likening the possibility of "stop" or "don't stop" to the ahkaam taklifee, which everyone is familiar with.
And that sums up the stops in the mushaf! Learn them, know them, and do what you can; in the end, reciting is ibaadah, and it's hard, but insha'Allah you get lots of reward for doing it.
- Tajweed Review Website
- Light of Eman
- Route 114: Qur’anic Sciences
- Memorize Qur’an: Triple Reinforcement
- Madd: Fard and Mustahab
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If someone can link to (or has access to) larger pictures of the stops, that they can send, please post a comment with your email so we can get in touch and use those, instead :)
Comment by Ilm Seeker — September 4, 2008 #
Salaam alaykum wa rahmatullahu wa barakatuhu
JazakAllah khayran for the post - mashaa’Allah it is great that we are seeing posts on all different topics.
But I wanted to point out that it is incorrect to say that “laa” means it is haraam to stop.
To quote from Ma’aariful Qur’an, volume 1 pp. 34-35:
“لا: This letter lâ is an abbreviation of lâ taqif, It means ‘do not stop here,’ but it does not imply that making a stop here is impermissible, because there are certain places bearing this sign where making a stop brings no harm and making an initiation from the following word is also permissible. Therefore, the correct meaning of this sign is: If a stop is made here, it is better to go back and read over again. Initiation from the next word is not approved (al-Nashr [of IBN AL-JAZAREE], 1/233).”
End quote.
Also the example you gave from Suratul-Baqarah about the meaning of the verse changing is also not correct. The words “think to deceive” appear in brackets because they are part of the necessitated meaning (iqtidaa an-nass). Here is a recitation from Shaykh Uthman Khan where he stops at this place in the verse:
http://quranicsciences.com/Quran/recitation/02%20-%20Track%202.mp3
Also, here in verse 2:159 (second verse recited in the audio) he stops at a place marked with “laa”, because it is not impermissible:
http://quranicsciences.com/Quran/recitation/11%20-%20Track%2011.mp3
I would strongly encourage you to not take from internet websites in these issues but to take from qualified teachers who have studied the classical sources on tajweed, eg. that of Ibn al-Jazaree.
waAllahu ta’alaam Alam
JazakumAllahu khayran
Comment by Nazir — September 4, 2008 #
Wa’alikum as-salaam wa rahmatullah,
Jazakumullahu khayran for the clarification; although it goes contrary to what my tajweed teacher also taught me about stopping on a “laa,” you really can’t beat Ibn Al-Jazaree :) jazakumullahu khayran for pointing it out.
Comment by Ilm Seeker — September 4, 2008 #
jazakallah for this post :)
Comment by Argentyne — September 6, 2008 #