Islam > Quran > Tajweed > Practical Tajweed (Applied Tajweed)
Updated on 04 October 2026 at 11:01 PM
📖 5 min readIt means: the recitation of the Noble Quran with a recitation endowed with tajweed (mujawwad), just as it was sent down to the Messenger of Allah (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him and his family).
The first to establish it was the Messenger of Allah (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him and his family), as the one who transmits on behalf of Allah (the Almighty and Majestic): he taught the Noble Quran to his Companions, recited it to them and listened to them, as has preceded.
Reciting the Noble Quran with a mujawwad recitation is an individual obligation upon every man and woman among the Muslims who wants to read anything of the Noble Quran.
The proof of the obligation to recite the Noble Quran with a mujawwad recitation came through the Quran, the Sunnah and the consensus of the ummah.
It is the saying of the Most High in Surah al-Muzzammil: وَرَتِّلِ الْقُرْآنَ تَرْتِيلاً (verse 4); the explanation of the verse has preceded in the discussion of the manner of reading the Noble Quran.
Allah (blessed and exalted) also praised a part of His creation, whom He honored with the preservation of His Book and its true recitation, saying: الَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ يَتْلُونَهُ حَقَّ تِلاوَتِهِ ¹. Part of the true recitation is the beautiful performance and the quality of the reading. Ash-Shawkani said in "Fath al-Qadir": "that is, they recite it according to the right of its recitation, without distorting it or altering it".
There is no doubt that from the verse is understood the condemnation of those who do not read the Noble Quran in a beautiful manner and do not observe the rules of tajweed in its recitation.
Among it is what is established in the hadith in which Ya'la ibn Mamlak asked Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with her) about the recitation of the Messenger of Allah (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him and his family) and about his prayer. She said: "What have you to do with his prayer?" Then she described his recitation, and it was a slow and distinct recitation, letter by letter. It is a report of an-Nasa'i, and at-Tirmidhi narrated it in another wording, saying: a hasan sahih hadith¹.
In this hadith lies the proof that the beautifying of the recitation and its tajweed are a sunnah of the Prophet (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him and his family).
There is also what is established in the hadith of Musa ibn Yazid al-Kindi (may Allah be pleased with him): Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) was having a man recite, and the man read إِنَّمَا الصَّدَقَاتُ لِلْفُقَرَاءِ وَالْمَسَاكِينِ ² briefly, without lengthening (madd). Ibn Mas'ud said: this is not how the Messenger of Allah (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him and his family) made me recite it.
The man said: and how am I to make you recite it, O Abu 'Abd ar-Rahman? He said: he made me recite it thus: إِنَّمَا الصَّدَقَاتُ لِلْفُقَرَاءِ وَالْمَسَاكِينِ ³, lengthening it (with madd).
Thus Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) disapproved of the man reading the word الفقراء without lengthening, because the Prophet (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him and his family) had made him recite it with madd. This therefore indicates the obligation of reciting the Noble Quran with a correct recitation, namely the one that complies with the rules of tajweed.
The reality is that people, just as they are worshippers through the understanding of the meanings of the Noble Quran and the upholding of its limits, are also worshippers through the correctness of its expressions and the tajweed of its letters according to the quality received by transmission from the imams of recitation whose chain continues unbroken up to the Prophet (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him and his family).
This quality can be taken neither from the mushaf nor from books; it is taken only through the oral transmission of the scholars specialized in it. For some rules can be mastered only through transmission and direct listening, such as the rawm, ishmaam, tasheel and other subtle rules⁴.
The knowledge of the rules of tajweed has a great merit: it helps the reader of the Noble Quran not to alter the structure of the Quranic words and their meanings.
Reaching the summit of mastery is the training of the tongue to perform with the correct expression received by transmission from the mouth of the one who excels in recitation.
The Islamic ummah agreed upon the obligation of reciting the Noble Quran with tajweed, from the time of the Prophet (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him and his family) down to our own era, and none of them differed over this. It is therefore not permitted for any reciter to read the Quran without tajweed, otherwise he would be among those targeted by the severe threat in the saying of the Most High: وَمَنْ يُشَاقِقِ الرَّسُولَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ الْهُدَى وَيَتَّبِعْ غَيْرَ سَبِيلِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ نُوَلِّهِ مَا تَوَلَّى وَنُصْلِهِ جَهَنَّمَ وَسَاءَتْ مَصِيرًا ¹.
The obligation of acting according to tajweed is likewise indicated by the imam Ibn al-Jazari in his saying:
والأَخْذُ بالتجويدِ حَتْمٌ لازِمُ ... من لم يُجَوِّدِ القُرْآنَ آثِمُ
لأنه به الإلهُ أنْزَلا ... وهكذا منهُ إلينا وَصَلا
وهو أيضًا حِلْيةُ التِّلاوة ... وزينةُ الأداءِ والقراءة"Taking tajweed is a binding obligation... whoever does not recite the Quran with tajweed is a sinner / for by it Allah sent it down... and thus, from Him, it reached us / and it is also the adornment of the recitation... and the ornament of performance and reading"
He therefore made it a legal obligation by which a person sins in neglecting it, and this is the view of most of the scholars and jurists. For the Quran was sent down with tajweed, the Messenger (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him and his family) recited it thus to Jibril, and he made the Companions recite it: it is therefore a prophetic sunnah².