As-salaamu`Alaikum wa RahmatuAllaahi wa barakaatuh.

Inshaa'Allaah, I have two questions.  The first concerns the tarqeeq letters that come before a Tafkheem letter that has sukoon or sheddah:  as in 68:20,   It is easier to pronounce the Faa with fat-hah and hamzeh with fat-hah in the first word but more difficult to pronounce the Kaaf with fat-hah in the second word.  Can you explain the ruling concerning this insha'Allaah ta'Aala Allaah yazeedekum khair.....

My second question concerns ghunneh....My understanding is that only Meem and Noon have ghunneh, is this correct?   My teacher told me that I make the ends of some Aayaat with ghunneh, for example in the end of the first Aayaah of surah an-Naba`: I hold the "loon" with ghunneh, and she told me this is wrong.  I know I'm saying it with ghunneh if I pinch my nose and the sound stops, then I can get the sound to come from my mouth instead of my nose.  So my question is about the    (NOON) at the beginning of Surat-ul-Qalam, and how do we pronounce it properly?    Do we make the ghunneh only on ghunneh for the last sound of the letter N?  Thank you for your time - may Allaah protect and preserve you and grant you the Jannat-ul-Firdaus. Aameen

Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

When learning tafkheem and tarqeeq, the student of the Qur’an often has problems by making tafkheem of letters next to a letter of tafkheem that should have tarqeeq or by reading the letter requiring tafkheem with tarqeeq.  This especially needs care if there are many alternative letters with tafkheem and tarqeeq. Some students would have more difficulty pronouncing the first two letters of the word  with tarqeeq than the  on the second word in the phrase: ..  It can vary from student to student.   The point is that it takes practice to get tafkheem and tarqeeq down, especially when letters of tarqeeq come before or right after a letter of tafkheem.  The ruling for the  is tarqeeq in the second word, but since it has an articulation point near the , one has to take extra care not to let it come out sounding like a , which has tafkheem. 

A common problem with some students of the Qur’an, Arab and non-Arab is that they have a ghunnah on one or all of the medd letters.  This is especially evident when there is a rule causing the medd letter to be held for four or more counts.  Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to rid oneself of this mistake, but the way to eliminate it is to focus the sound out the mouth and not up through the nasal passage.  The ghunnah that is an intrinsic part of the letters and  is a natural occurrence with the letters, and not something we need to think about when pronouncing them.  In fact the sound of these two letters does not come out properly without the natural ghunnah.  In the case of an unwanted ghunnah in the letter  or any other letter, we can control it with the help of Allah and then a lot of practice.  Closing your nostrils off is a way to check if the ghunnah is present or not; if the sound disappears or is imprisoned when closing off your nostrils, then there is a ghunnah.  If the sound is clear and the same with or without closing your nostrils, then there is no ghunnah present.  Make sure you mouth is not completely closed when making the dhammah for the letter , there needs to be a small space for the sound to travel through, otherwise it will find an alternative place to go, and that will most likely be the nasal passage.  In the long medd at the beginning of surah Al-Qalam for the separate letter , there will be a natural ghunnah in the first  and the second one but there should be no ghunnah during the long lengthened .  As stated above, any ghunnah present in the  is from the sound being focused through the nasal passage, so if you focus the sound out your mouth for the , insha’ Allah the ghunnah will disappear.  

You are most welcome.  May Allah reward you with similar and more than what you asked for us.  Jazakum Allahu khairan for the beautiful dua’.

Wa assalaam alaikum wa rahmatullah.