Islam > Quran > Tajweed > Questions: Tajweed and Lahn
Updated on 04 October 2026 at 11:01 PM
📖 3 min readTajweed divides into two parts: practical ('amali) tajweed and scientific ('ilmi) tajweed. Practical tajweed means the recitation of the Noble Quran with a mujawwad recitation (endowed with tajweed), just as it was sent down to the Messenger of Allah; scientific tajweed means the knowledge of its rules and of its scientific rulings, according to the recitation of the imam Hafs 'an 'Asim.
Revision: The 2 Divisions of Tajweed, Practical Tajweed and Scientific Tajweed
Reciting the Noble Quran with a mujawwad recitation is an individual obligation (fard 'ayn) upon every man and woman among the Muslims who wants to read anything of the Noble Quran. Lahn in it is therefore forbidden (haram), and its distortion is a sin.
The proof from the Quran: وَرَتِّلِ الْقُرْآنَ تَرْتِيلاً (Surah al-Muzzammil, verse 4), and الَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ يَتْلُونَهُ حَقَّ تِلاوَتِهِ in which part of the true recitation is the beautiful performance and the quality of the reading. The proof from the Sunnah: the hadith of Umm Salamah describing the recitation of the Prophet as a slow and distinct recitation, letter by letter, and the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud disapproving the reading of إِنَّمَا الصَّدَقَاتُ لِلْفُقَرَاءِ وَالْمَسَاكِينِ without lengthening. The proof from consensus: the ummah agreed upon the obligation of reciting the Quran with tajweed, from the time of the Prophet down to our era, as the verse of Ibn al-Jazari recalls: "whoever does not recite the Quran with tajweed is a sinner".
For the general public, learning it is recommended and not obligatory. For the elite of the people, those who devote themselves to recitation or to teaching, learning it is an individual obligation, so that they may be a model for the others. The proof is the general scope of فَلَوْلا نَفَرَ مِنْ كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِنْهُمْ طَائِفَةٌ لِيَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي الدِّينِ: when a group takes charge of learning it and teaching it, the obligation falls from the general public.
The lahn is error and deviation from correctness. It divides into two: the evident lahn (jali), which alters the structure of the word, whether or not it alters its meaning, forbidden by consensus; and the hidden lahn (khafi), which alters the recognized usage ('urf) of the recitation without altering the structure, such as omitting izhaar, idghaam or ikhfa: its prohibition is the most correct view if the reciter commits it deliberately or shows negligence about it, and detestation has also been said. The jali is known to the scholar and to the layman alike; the khafi is hidden from all but the one who knows the rules of tajweed.