What is Tajweed?

What is Tajweed?

 

“Tajweed ” is an Arabic word meaning correct pronunciation during recitation. It is a set of rules which dictate how the Qur'an should be read.

When Islam was being spread not everyone's tongue was accustomed to the Arabic letters and sounds. Therefore, when reciting the Qur'an, much error and flaw occurred and the Muslim scholars feared that there was error and distortion. It was at this point that some of them recorded the rules and foundations that regulate the correct pronunciation of Qur'an, and they named this the Science of Tajweed. The rules were not made up by these Scholars. In fact, all they did was closely observe the perfect readers who read as they were taught by the Prophet and wrote down for later generations the rules of recitation of the earlier generations.
From the outset, Tajweed was a Science that cannot be learnt only from a book and will always retain this inherent quality. The most important part of Tajweed is learning about correct positions of the organs of speech and the manner of articulation. The Qur'an can lose its meaning if the letters are not pronounced correctly.