Question
I
have a question about attributes of letters. The following letters fall in
mehmusa (weak) category: Fa, Thaa’, Ha, Sheen, Kha', Saad, Seen, Kaaf, and
Ta’. If the general idea behind this is that these letters are pronounced
without force, then what about other letters such as Ba or Daal? When I hear a
Qari, I don't detect extra softness or force when they pronounce Ba or Daal
compared to other mehmusa letters (?). I am similarly confused about other
categories such as Shadeeda, Musta-alia etc. I am missing this by a mile.
Please guide me. May Allah reward you for your excellent efforts in teaching
us.
Answer
The characteristics of
the letters, or if you wish to use the term “attributes”, that is fine,
are at least 5 for each letter. There
are 5 pairs of characteristics and each letter has one or the other of the
pair. If we talk about the
letters of “hams," in Arabic,
,
then we need to talk about its opposite,
to
understand first of all, what these characteristics are, and secondly, why one
of them is considered a weak characteristic, and the other strong.
A letter that has the characteristic of
is
called
(mahmus).
This is just to make clear the two terms, one is the characteristic
itself (
), the
other the letter that has the characteristic is labeled:
.
The definition of
is:
Running on of breath when pronouncing the letter due to weakness in its
origin, when weakening reliance on the letter at its articulation point of
origin.
The first thing to note is that the running of breath is what causes the
weakness in this characteristic. When
pronouncing a letter and the breath running out of the mouth at the same time,
the reliance on the articulation point weakens. It is not something an Arab or a good reciter will
intentionally do, it is a natural occurrence in the letter when it is
pronounced correctly. The
opposite of
, as
previously stated is
.
Any given letter has either the characteristic of
, or the
characteristic of
.
No letter can have both of these characteristics, and no letter has
neither of them.
The definition of
is:
Imprisonment of running on of breath when pronouncing a letter due to
strength in
its origin when strengthening reliance on it at its articulation point.
With this characteristic we see the breath does not run out when the letter is
articulated; this strengthens the reliance on the articulation point of the
letter, and thus is a strong characteristic.
The letters that have
are
the letters in the group:
, all other
letters have the characteristic of
, or imprisonment of the running
of breath.
The other
characteristics that are paired with an opposite are:
and
, and their opposite:
and
its opposite,
and
its opposite
The fifth pair has no
affect on the sound or pronunciation of the letters, so will not be included.
Each of these pairs have
definitions. For example:
(strength)
is: Imprisonment of the running of the sound when pronouncing a letter to
complete the reliance on the articulation point.
This characteristic is about the running of sound, not breath, but again the
same principle applies. If the
sound is imprisoned, the reliance on the articulation point increases, thus
the letter ends up stronger. The letters
that have this characteristic are in the group: 
(softness)
is running of the sound when pronouncing a letter, weakening the reliance
on the articulation point. The letters of
this group are all the rest after taking out the letters
and the letters of "moderation",
(moderation) is an in
between characteristic defined as: The letter is in between the two
characteristics; between strength and softness so that the sound is partially
imprisoned and partially running when pronouncing the letter.
You
may note that this group has three “pairs”.
As in the other groups, a single letter has only one of these three
characteristics, and every letter has one of the three.
You can see then why an
individual characteristic is classified as “weak” or “strong”.
It isn’t an unnatural force the reciter puts on the letter or removes
from the letter, but instead a natural characteristic inherent in the Arabic
letter that is either weak or strong. You
need to study the definitions of the characteristics to understand why each
one is considered strong or weak.
Learning to pronounce
the Arabic letters with all their characteristics is the goal every reciter of
the Qur’an, or student of tajweed should place in front of them.
Letters that share articulation points are differentiated in sound with
the characteristics. If the
letter
, which is
articulated from the two lips was pronounced with
, a
characteristic it does NOT have, the letter would not sound like a
, but
instead like a “p”. Similarly,
the letter
articulated
between the edges of the two upper front incisors and the inside of the bottom
lip, has the characteristic of
(running
of breath); if a reader were to pronounce it without this characteristic, it
would sound like a “v”. These
are examples of Arabic letters changing into foreign letters, but Arabic
letters that are not given their full characteristics can change into another
Arabic letter from the same articulation point.
We will, insha’ Allah,
after finishing the medd (lengthening) section, go on to the detailed study of
the characteristics in the tidbit lessons.
May Allah reward you, increase your knowledge, and make you of the
people of the Qur’an.
