Tajweed Vs Understanding the Quran

why not do both?

Both....Pronouncation is important because the meaning can change....but if you don't understand what you are reading, then how will you understand Allaah's message to mankind?

which would raise the question...r there any tajweed lessons on internet?

format_quote Originally Posted by kay106

Salam,

I have friends who thinks that pronouncing the quran is more important than understanding the quran, anyone have any good opinions?

My point of view - Purpose of the quran is to guide us, if we dont know what it is saying how will we be guided?

Others say that if you prounce something wrong you change the meaning?

So what should we give more of a priority?

As far as i know both is important, you need know how to pronounce and understand what your reading at the same time. Yes you are changing the meaning if you pronounce words incorrectly, this could result to sins because we could end up saying things which are bad. Allah swt will forgive us if we make the mistakes unknowingly but we should try our best to learn and use tajweed.

And yes it is very important we know what we are reading because the Quran contains our way of life. Its like reading an english novel without understanding the story. This reminds me of something, people compete to learn things off by heart but whats the point if you dont understand what you are saying.

If we did both these things our recitations of the Quran will sound beautifull and we will gain so much knowledge by learning the meaning. So i say both is important

Reciting the Qur'an with Tajweed is more important, as this is Waajib, and

reciting the Qur'an without Tajweed is a sin.

But the same amount of Thawab is acquired whether one recites the Qur'an

with understanding, or without it.


Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal (R.A) said:

"I saw Allah Ta'ala in my dream and asked him, 'O Sustainer, how have those

who have drawn near to you achieved this nearness?'

Allah Ta'ala replied, 'It is by my speech, (the Qur'an) O Ahmed'

Ahmed said, I inquired, 'O Sustainer, is it by understanding your speech or

without understanding it?'

Allah Ta'ala replied, 'By understanding as well as without understanding'."

An earnest effort must however be made to understand the Qur'an.

Asselam Alaikum

Both go side by side. You have to learn as much as you can . I adivice u visingting this site, learning tajweed

http://www.al-eman.com/Taguid/3amer.asp

learning the meaning is far more important than tajweed. i say this because the meanings of words only change with basic errors of pronounciation.
also if you just read or memorise the quran without the meaning, then what good is it for you - ok youll get rewards from allah. but it does not help you in coming any closer to your religion. infact lack of understanding may drive people away from reading, as was the case with a few children in my mosque. for this reason i consider meaning to be the more important

But the thing is that the vast majority of Muslims including me are non-Arab. I dont understand the meaning if I just read the arabic I just know some often repeated arabic words that I picked up from reading the Arabic simultaneously with the english translation. I want to change that because I know that the translation doesn't do justice to the actual Quran. Inshaallah one day I can learn Arabic because I think understanding and pondering is what is most important when reading the Quran

format_quote Originally Posted by Good Shepherd

Reciting the Qur'an with Tajweed is more important, as this is Waajib, and

reciting the Qur'an without Tajweed is a sin.

But the same amount of Thawab is acquired whether one recites the Qur'an

with understanding, or without it.


Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal (R.A) said:

"I saw Allah Ta'ala in my dream and asked him, 'O Sustainer, how have those

who have drawn near to you achieved this nearness?'

Allah Ta'ala replied, 'It is by my speech, (the Qur'an) O Ahmed'

Ahmed said, I inquired, 'O Sustainer, is it by understanding your speech or

without understanding it?'

Allah Ta'ala replied, 'By understanding as well as without understanding'."

An earnest effort must however be made to understand the Qur'an.

How can this be possible, I dont think even the prophets saw Allah???? Is this correct, did any of the prophets see Allah. If not then how can Iman Hanbal see Allah, I heard of many people that he is a great scholar. But did he really say that?

format_quote Originally Posted by kay106

Salam,

I have friends who thinks that pronouncing the quran is more important than understanding the quran, anyone have any good opinions?

My point of view - Purpose of the quran is to guide us, if we dont know what it is saying how will we be guided?

Others say that if you prounce something wrong you change the meaning?

So what should we give more of a priority?

This is long, but bear with me. There are many ayats of the Quran that mention the blessing of 'reciting' the Quran. These do not lay stress on tajweed, but only on reciting the Quran. There is a difference between reciting as you are able, and tajweed, which is excellent Quran recitation. There are also many ayats that speak negatively of people who do not understand what is said (2:171, 8:22, 67:10 etc). Understanding the words does not mean that you will understand with perfect clarity all that is in the Quran since some things are not of a well-established meaning. We are not called to figure those things out, but we are called to follow the verses that are of well established meaning (Quran 3:7). That is especially for those verses that speak of heaven, or future events such that some prophets said that they did not know some things (72:25)

There are many ayats of the Quran, and some hadith that completely negate the importance of tajweed. Those who stress tajweed always rely on obscure hadith that have questionable meanings if they quote hadith in support of tajweed at all. If tajweed were of great importance then surely Allah SWT would have mentioned it in the Quran, but it is not in the Quran. If you want to know who is called righteous, read Quran 2:177 Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true] righteousness is [in] one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask [for help], and for freeing slaves; [and who] establishes prayer and gives zakah; [those who] fulfill their promise when they promise; and [those who] are patient in poverty and hardship and during battle. Those are the ones who have been true, and it is those who are the righteous.

There is not a mention or a hint of tajweed. Tajweed is mustahab (preferred, but not an obligation) during prayer. If all other Islamic duties are met, then tajweed is more or less a show of excellence. If there is tajweed, but no Islam, then this is hypocrisy, and spoken against in Surat Al Maun.

I think stress should be laid on knowing what you are saying because Allah SWT lets us know that simply saying words in Arabic without understanding what you are saying is not good enough in 4:43. It says:



Did you understand that? Unless you understand Arabic, you couldn't. It says translated, :Sahih International: O you who have believed, do not approach prayer while you are intoxicated until you know what you are saying or in a state of janabah, except those passing through [a place of prayer], until you have washed [your whole body]. And if you are ill or on a journey or one of you comes from the place of relieving himself or you have contacted women and find no water, then seek clean earth and wipe over your faces and your hands [with it]. Indeed, Allah is ever Pardoning and Forgiving.

Even a drunk can recite the Quran, but we are told to wait until we know what we are saying. (Of course alcohol is prohibited in Islam. The above ayat was revealed before alcohol was explicitly forbidden in surah 5:90-91. There are some people who are claiming that alcohol was never forbidden in the Quran. How can you argue against them, if you don't know what the Quran actually says?).

in 75:18 (Yusuf Ali translation) Allah SWT commands us "But when We have recited it, follow thou its recital." There is no way to follow the recital unless you know what is said.

This shows that knowing what you are saying is more important than simply reciting words of which you don't know the meaning. Here is another quote from the Quran that lays stress on knowing the meaning of the words, but remember this first: we are supposed to recite the Quran in our prayers. With that in mind, in the Quran 107:4-5.

107:4 -5 (Sahih International translation): So woe to those who pray, [But] who are heedless of their prayer -

.How can you 'heed' your prayer if you don't even know what you are saying? This is clearly speaking of those who recite perfectly, but they don't pay attention to what they are saying. How much more heedless can you be if you speak words, and you don't even know what you are saying? Some will say that this is talking about those who don't show small acts of kindness. To these people I say: how do you know what Allah SWT calls small acts of kindness if you don't know the meaning of the words He gave to us? All debate fails if we were actually quoting what Allah SWT says. The only people who would want for anyone to remain ignorant of the meaning of the words either explicitly, or by implying it by saying that one should know tajweed before knowing what is meant, are those people who want or believe in a religious hierarchy where the shaykh, imam, usted who is Arabian or even an untaught Arabian, or someone taught by an Arabian is the only way to know what is Islam. Allah SWT condemned the Jews for that very practice in 9:31 where it reads:

Sahih International: They have taken their scholars and monks as lords besides Allah , and [also] the Messiah, the son of Mary. And they were not commanded except to worship one God; there is no deity except Him. Exalted is He above whatever they associate with Him.



There are many who lay stress on tajweed to the exclusion of actually understanding what you are saying. I believe that most of these people are Arabian elitists. Not all Arabians are that way, but it seems that most of the Arabians I have met in the US are that way. I have lived in an Arabian country, and I can say that not all Arabians are that way, but there are Arabian elitists. The Arabian elitists have been listening to an Arabian telling them that only an Arabian can truly understand the Quran. Even if you know how to speak Arabic, and can even read Arabic, it won't matter because the Arabian elitist (whether they are of the Arabian race or not) has the excuse to dismiss all that you say because you are not Arabian. That is not Islam, that is actually shirk. I notice that those who lay stress on tajweed cannot quote the Quran on this matter, but I have quoted against it. They always quote an obscure hadith that does not support what they are saying without heavily depending on obscure and poetic meanings of words, or an opinion. I have even seen where one person said that not quoting with tajweed is haram, and I don't remember if they quoted a hadith, but to these people Allah SWT says this about saying something is haram without authority Quran 5:87:

Mohsin Khan: O you who believe! Make not unlawful the Taiyibat (all that is good as regards foods, things, deeds, beliefs, persons, etc.) which Allah has made lawful to you, and transgress not. Verily, Allah does not like the transgressors

To the Arabian elitists who have so much to say about tajweed, and often quote obscure hadiths with heavily poetical meanings of words, let's look at what a clear hadith says explicitly about this whole affair. This is Malik's Muwatta:
Book 15, Number 15.4.5:
( Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab from Urwa ibn az-Zubayr that Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abd al-Qari said that he had heard Umar ibn al-Khattab say, "I heard Hisham ibn Hakim ibn Hizam reciting Surat al-Furqan (Sura 25) differently from me, and it was the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who had recited it to me. I was about to rush up to him but I granted him a respite until he had finished his prayer. Then I grabbed him by his cloak and took him to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said, 'Messenger of Allah, I heard this man reciting Surat al-Furqan differently from the way you recited it to me.' The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, 'Let him go.' Then he said, 'Recite, Hisham,' and Hisham recited as I had heard him recite. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, 'It was sent down like that.' Then he said to me, 'Recite' and I recited the sura, and he said, 'It was sent down like that. This Qur'an was sent down in seven (different) ways, so recite from it whatever is easy for you


There have been many attempts to negate this hadith for two reasons I can think of: first because of the deliberate misunderstanding of anti-Islamic Europeans who want to falsely claim that there are 7 different Qurans when it does not say that; and from Arabian elitists who claim to want to preserve that Arabic spoken by the Prophet (which is actually a good thing), but they really want to be worshipped as the people closest to the Prophet SAWS.

From all of this, I hope that it is clear that both understanding and reciting are important, but understanding is far more important than reciting. And reciting is more important than excellent tajweed. Tajweed is the excellence of recital, but it is not fardz or obligatory; it is mustahab or considered a good practice.


Asalaamuwalaikum

As far as I know, Both are important.



ALLAH knows best.

Tajweed is important and a priority, a Shaykh told us once "to drop everything we are doing" and learn how to recite correctly with proper rules etc because we can make a mistake which then changes the words of Allah in our recitation. It's always a good idea to revisit your rules. Of course understanding the Quran is important but part of understanding comes with implementing and praying salaah is a fundamental pillar of Islam and you need to know your Surahs in prayer hence Tajweed.

That's my understanding I haven't gone through the entire thread. (Yet)