Tajweed notes on makharij

Bismillah With the Name of Allah , the Most Merciful

I have typed some of my tajweed notes on makharij for the purpose of revision inshAllah. Alhamdulillah our beautiful teacher has started doing videos on tajweed. I have shared some of the videos here with relevant notes. Hope this helps us all inshaAllah.

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Makharij means articulation point i.e the place where the letters exit from. Letters are called huruf in arabic. Harf is the singular form of the word huruf.

There are five different exit points (makharij).

1. Al-Jawf ( The empty space in the throat and mouth/ the oral cavity)

2. Ash-Shafatayn ( The lips)

3. Al-Halq (The throat)

4. Al-Khayshum (The nasal passage)

5. Al-Lisaan ( The tongue)

Al-Jawf ( The oral cavity)

From the jawf ( empty space in the mouth and throat) three letters emerge. These madd ( lengthening the sound) letters are:

Alif ( ا ) preceded by a fatha,

Yaa ( ي ) preceded by a kasra,

Waaw ( و ) preceded by a dammah.

So it needs to be stretched for two counts.

Al-Shafataan
There are four letters from the lips.
Two categories
1. Between the lips ب م و
These three letters requires the both lips to meet, even for the letter و we must round both lips.
ب Letter Baa'
Makhraj: It is pronounced when the wet portion of the two lips meet and separate.
Sifaat (attributes)

No air flow

2 No sound flow

3 Light letter

Qalqalah letter (bouncing/echo)

م Letter Meem

Makhraj: It is pronounced when the dry portions of the two lips meet.

Sifaat:

1. No air flow

2. Partial sound flow

3. Light letter

4. Ghunna letter

و Letter Waaw

Makhraj: It is pronounced by rounding the lips without the two lips meeting completely.

Sifaat:

1. No air flow

2. Sound flows

3. Light letter

2. Inside lower lip ف Letter Faa'
To pronounce it we use the bottom lip. It is pronounced by putting the wet portion of the bottom lip on the edge of the upper incisor teeth and pushing air between them.

Sifaat:
Air flows
Sound flows
Light letter

Al-Halq (The Throat)

There are 6 letters pronounced from the throat.

1. Aqsal Halq (The deepest/ bottom part of the throat)

هـ Haa'

Makhraj: It is pronounced from the deepest part of the throat.

Sifaat:

Air flows

Sound flows
Light letter

ء Hamza

Makhraj: It is pronounced from the deepest part of the throat.

Sifaat:

No air

No sound flow

Jerk the sound
Light letter

2. Wasatul Halq (Middle of the throat)

ع 'Ayn

Makhraj: It is pronounced from the middle of the throat.

Sifaat:

No air flow

Partial sound flow
Light letter

ح Haa'

Makhraj: It is pronounced from the middle of the throat.

Sifaat:

Air flows

Sound flows
Light letter

3. Adnal Halq (Top of the throat)

خ Khaa'

Makhraj: It is pronounced from the top of the throat.

Sifaat:

Air doesn’t flow

Sound flows

Heavy letter

غGyan

Makhraj: It is pronounced from the top of the throat.

Sifaat:

Air flows

Sound flows

Heavy letter

Al-Khayshum (The nasal passage)

ن Noon

Makhraj: It is pronounced when tip of the tongue (Tarful Lisaan) touches the root of the upper incisor sharing the nasal passage.

Sifaat:

Air doesn’t flow

Sound partially flows

It has ghunna

Light letter

م Meem

Makhraj: It comes out by closing the two lips (dry portion of the lips meet) and using the nasal passage, softly without pressure.

Sifaat:

No air flow

Partial sound flow

Light letter

It has ghunna

Al Lisaan (The tongue)

18 letters are pronounced from four different parts of the tongue.

11. AQSAL LISAAN ( Back of the tongue)

22. HAAFATUL LISAAN (Side of the tongue)

33. WASATUL LISAAN (Middle of the tongue)

44. TARFUL LISAAN (Tip of the tongue)

Huroof al-lisaan means the letters of the tongue. There are 18 letters that exit from the tongue which are divided in to four parts mentioned above.

2 letters are pronounced from the back of the tongue (Aqsal lisaan)

1. Qaaf ق

It is pronounced when the root of the tongue touches the soft part of the palate.

Sifat: 1. No air flows

2. No sound flows

3. Heavy letter

4. Qalqalah letter (bounce/echo)

2. Kaaf ك

It is pronounced when the root of the tongue touches the hard part of the palate (closer to the mouth)

Sifat:

1. Air flows

2. No sound flows

3. Light letter

Middle of the tongue (Wasatal Lisaan)

There are three letters which are pronounced from the middle of the tongue.

The middle part of the tongue touches the part of the palate which is directly above it.

1. Jeem ج

2. Sheen ش

3. Yaa ي

Jeem ج

Sifaat:

1. No air flow

2. No sound flow

3. Light letter

Sheen ش

Sifaat:

1. Air flows

2. Sound flows

3. Light letter

Yaa ي

Sifaat:

1. No air flows

2. Sound flows

3. Light letter

Side of the tongue (Haafatul Lisaan)

These are two letters which are pronounced from the side of the tongue.

The letter ل

Laam originates from the front edge of the tongue touching the back gums of the upper six teeth.

Sifaat:

1. No air flow

2. Partial sound flow

3. Generally a light letter but when used in the word, Allah الله it will be heavy if it’s preceded by fatha and dhamma and it will be light if it is preceded by kasra, like in the word Bismillah بِسْمِ اللهِ

The letter ض

Daad comes from the back edge of the tongue connected to the upper molar teeth.

Sifaat:

1. No air flows

2. Sound flows

3. Heavy letter

4. No qalqalah, sound needs to stay inside.

5. Letter of Istitalah

Tip of the tongue (Tarful Lisaan)

There are 11 letters pronounced from the tip of the tongue.

ت د ط

Letters below are articulated from the top part of the tip of the tongue, touching the roots of the upper incisors.

Sifaat:

Air flows

No sound flows

Light letter

Sifaat:

No air flow

No sound flow

Light letter

Sifaat:

No air flow

No sound flow

Heavy letter

Tongue is raised

ز س ص

These three letters are articulated from between the tip of the tongue and the plates of the upper and lower incisors. This leaves a small gap between the tongue and the incisors (hence the whistle sound).

Sifaat:

No air flow

Sound flows

Light air

Sifaat:

1. Hurufus Saufeer (whistling letter) as it makes a whistling sound

2. Air flows

3. Sound flows

4. Light letter

Sifaat:

1. Air flows

2. Sound flows

3. Strongest letter of whistling (Hurufus Saufeer)

This letter is articulated from the tip of the tongue touching the roots of the upper incisors.

In Al-khayshum, we have learnt Ghunnah (nasal sound) is the sound we make for the letter but it is pronounced using the tongue.

Sifaat:

Air doesn’t flow

Sound partially flows

Part of Al-Khayshum letters that’s why it has ghunna

Light letter

Makhraj: it is pronounced when the tip of the tongue including the back touches the gums of the upper incisor. We must very slightly roll the tongue.

Sifat:

Not too much vibration

Air doesn’t flow

Sound partially flows

It can be heavy or light letter. It is pronounced heavy, due to a fatha or dhamma. With a kasra, it is pronounced light.

ظ ث ذ

These letters are pronounced when the top of the tip of the tongue touches the bottom edges of the top incisors. Part of the tongue will stick out.

Sifaat:

1. No air flow

2. Sound flows

3. Heavy letter

Sifaat:
1.    Air flows
2.    Sound flows
3.    Light letter

ذ
Sifaat:
1.    No air flow
2.    Sound flows
3.    Light letter

Part 1 of the video on Al-Lisaan ( The tongue)

Part 2 of the video on Al-Lisaan

I hope these notes make sense inshaAllah. There are some quiz videos which you can try to answer after reading these notes. You can access the quiz videos here at Ikhlaas Learning

There are some great websites to browse if you want to learn more about makharij . I have shared the links below:

Tajweed Me

Learn the Qur'an

About Tajweed

Learn Tajweed with Sheikh Mishary Rashid Al-Afasy