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Question

Assalamu'alaykum,
We just finished our 5th Annual Quran Competition in our school and alhamdulillah, it went okay. For a school in the USA , I think we did great, masha Allah.
Can I share with you some titbits in tajweed class? One day in a 5th grade class (10 year olds) I was explaining the  rules of noon as saakinah and suddenly we came to a word that has meem as saakinah and I asked them, in the Othmani script, if you see a meem that has a sokoon, what ruling is that? One student masha Allah answered "izhaar shafawi". I smiled and told them that many people forgot about the rules of meem as saakinah and I impressed upon them that there is another izhar that many people do not talk about. I quickly said, "there are izhaar halqi, izhaar shafawi and izhar mutlaaq."  As usual, to check whether they were paying attention, I quickly asked, "What did I just tell you?" A girl raised her hand and I called upon her and she confidently said, "You told us that there are three kinds of izhaar; they are izhar shafawi, izhar mutlaaq  and.....izhar....yes, izhar habibi."  The whole class burst into laughter. I smiled and said, "It's not izhaar habibi, izhaar halqi"
Now for the real questions:
Can you teach me how to read in wasl all the chapters that begin with huroof al muqattaat? For example, in soorah Luqmaan: "Alif, Laaaam, Meeeem. Tilka aayatul kitaabbil hakeem." What if we don't want to stop at Meeeem and wish to continue reading with "tilka"? Since the letter meem has a tanween in it, and the next letter is, "taa", must we apply ikhfa?  I want to know how to read all of the chapters without stopping at the last letter of the huroof al muqattaat. Thanks.

Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh,

Forgive our tardiness in answering your questions.  May Allah grant you and your students all success and make you of the best of people.

The huroof al-muqatta3ah, if the last letter is one of the letters in the group: , it read with a sukoon on the last letter of the written out letter.  In general this last saakin letter is read with the usual rule for each of the saakin letters depending on the letter and what follows it in the next aayah or next phrase after the letters, but there are a few exceptions or things to note. The separate letters at the beginning of some surahs that are of the group  are pronounced each with three letters, such as , , , and all have a sukoon aslee on the last letter.  So in the example in the question, , the meem is read with a sukoon on the end, there is no tanween on the , and the rule will be when continuing on to the word tilka in one breath. 

If you would be so kind as to click on this link, a previous question and answer should give you the complete information you would like: http://www.abouttajweed.com/010504.htm .

You are most welcome