Question

Assalamu Aleikum

I was reading through question 09040402 concerning how qurraa get their
rhythm such as sheikh Al Husary. You wrote that in his book, the sheikh warned
about those who lengthen more than it is prescribed such as adding or
subtracting a vowel in order to embellish the recitation. My questions are:

1. Would you please give us a specific and well detailed example of adding
and subtracting a vowel more than it is prescribed in the recitation?
Therefore, we (those who are learning to improve their recitation) will not attempt to
make the same mistake involuntarily.

2. Do you or did you know of any reciter who would add or subtract more in
order to embellish his/her recitation?  If yes what are their names?

Ma salam

Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh.

1. A clear example of adding a vowel would be if a reciter made an alif out of a fat-hah, or a wow out of a dhammah, but often times it is not so obvious, and what a reciter may do is make a fat-hah one and a half vowel counts instead of one.  Some may cut an alif short of two vowel counts, too.  Another example would be if a reader lengthened 8 or more vowel counts instead of four vowel counts in order to try and make his/her voice sound better and go up and down in the tone while lengthening.  Changing the tone while lengthening one of the medd letters is not part of the recitation passed down to us from the Prophet, .  

2.  It would not at all be appropriate to mention a specific reciter’s name, and it is enough to know this is something to be avoided.  If we consistently hear it in recitation by the same reciter, we know then we should not try to copy his recitation. 

Wa assalam