Question

My teacher tells me I keep mispronouncing the ikhfa’.  Do you have any suggestions?

Answer

The word means to hide.  There are two types of ikhfa’ in tajweed, one is when there is a noon saakinah and it is followed by one of the letters of ikhfa’, the other when there is a meem saakinah followed by a ba’. 

Most likely your teacher is correcting you on the first one, the hiding of the noon saakinah before one of the ikhfa’ letters.  This takes some time to perfect, and you shouldn’t be discouraged if you do not accomplish this quickly.  The first thing to note is that the noon saakinah is what it hidden.  How can the noon hide?  During the ikhfa’ of the noon saakinah, the tongue does not touch any part of our mouth or teeth.  If we let our tongue touch our teeth, a noon is still heard (even though that isn’t the correct articulation point for the noon).  If we let our tongue go up in the back and touch the roof of the mouth, a noon may be heard, or tafkheem (heaviness) of the ikhfa’ may occur.  The only time tafkheem (heaviness) of the ikhfa’ should occur is when there is a letter of tafkheem afterwards, and that letter of tafkheem (heaviness) is one of the ikhfa’ letters.  This is only when the noon saakinah is followed by:

The second part of the ikhfa’ is getting the tongue close to, but not on, the articulation point of the letter that immediately follows the noon saakinah.  This takes the most skill when the noon saakinah precedes any of the following:  because they are so close to the noon articulation point.  The tongue needs to be controlled so it approaches the articulation point of the upcoming letter, but does not touch its articulation point, or anything else in the mouth and teeth. 

One way of practicing the ikhfa’ is to break it down into two steps, gaining profiency in the first step before adding the second.  In other words, put the tongue down away from the articulation point of the noon, and let it hang, not touching anything, and let the ghunnah (nasalization) run while doing this.  You may need to stay on this step for more than a few days before added the next step, that of moving the tongue close to, but not on, the articulation point of the following letter.  If you feel, while adding the second step, you are touching something, or hear a noon, go back to step one, and just let the tongue hang again.  Slowly bring your tongue towards the articulation point of the next letter, working on getting it closer day by day.  Do not be in a rush to perfect the second step.  Take it slowly and only get a little closer to the next letter when you feel you have the feeling of the last position down.  You may move a little closer to the articulation point of the letter following the noon saakinah each time you have accomplished the previous position, until, insha’ Allah, you reach the correct position and sound of the ikhfa’.  May Allah make it easy for you and all Muslims.