LEVEL 1 : A

Through out the internet we find many courses teaching Tajweed using various methods. And this course is going to be unique in its own way. I have tried my best to keep it as simple and precise as possible. So now, without any delay let's get started.

بسم الله الرحمن الحيم

There are 29 letters in the Arabic alphabet. And each letter has a specific articulation point(i.e. the place from which the letter is emitted such that its pronunciation is different from that of other letters). In Arabic the articulation point is called as مخرج (Makhraj).

There are 5 major areas of articulation. They are as follows:

Each area shown above may have 1 or more articulation point .And each articulation point may have 1 or more letters. The table below summarizes this point.

Area	Number of Articulation point	Number of letters emitted
Lips	2	4
Nasal Passage	1	2(for ghunnah)
Oral Cavity	1	3(Lengthed letters)
Tongue	10	18
Throat	3	6

Before we start learning the makhraj of the various letters, let us also take a look at the teeth structure and that of the tongue as knowing them will become really handy later on In Sha Allah.

Structure of the teeth

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Structure of the tongue

LEVEL 1 : B

Let us now look at each areas with their different articulation points in detail.

THE LIP LETTERS 

The 2 articulation point of the lips are the lower lip and the upper lip. The 4 letters which originate from lips are :

LETTER	EXPLANATION OF THE MAKHRAJ	PICTORIAL DESCRIPTION
م (Meem)	* Press the 2 lips together. * Incorporate a ghunnah from the nasal passage.
ب (Baa)	*Press the lips together (stronger closing than the Meem) and release.
و (Waa)	*Form a circle – ‘o’ with your lips (without the 2 lips meeting completely) Tip: Do not bite your lower lip with your front 2 incisors.
ف (Faa)	*Press the tips of the front 2 incisors against the inside of the lower lip.

THE THROAT LETTERS 

The throat has 3 articulation points (three levels ). And each point has 2 letters.

The letters that originate from the respective regions are shown below:

                                                                                                                                                                   

UPPER THROAT	ج     (Kha) (Tip: Similar to the sound some people make when they snore or laugh .)
	غ     (Gayn) (Tip: Similar to the sound some people make when they gargle water in their throat.)
MID THROAT	ع     (‘aa) (Tip: The sound produced is not similar to that of ح, ه or ء. Similitude of the sound can be made when you say ‘’aaa’’ and press your throat. You can practice by saying the word ‘Ya’ni’
	ح     (Ha)          (Tip: It is similar to the sound people make when they eat something spicy )
DEEP THROAT	ه      (Hamza) (Tip: It is similar to  the sound people make when they pant after running.)
	ء      (Aa) This is the normal ‘aaa’ sound

THE ORAL CAVITY LETTERS

The 3 Madd letters are articulated from here. Madd letters causes the lengthening of a short vowel(with one harakath) to 2 harakath (time taken to fold 2 fingers). 

Alif Madd ا + ََََ_	Occurs when Alif saakinah (alif without any vowels i.e. )   follows  a letter with Fathaha.	Eg:
Yaa Madd ي + ِ-	Occurs when Yaa  saakinah (Yaa without any vowels i.e. )follows a letter with Kasara.	Eg:
Waaw Madd و + ُ_	Occurs when Waaw  saakinah (a Waaw without any vowels i.e. ) follows a letter with Dhammah.	Eg:

Preservation of the Quran P1

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The Quran was first revealed in 610 CE when Prophet Muhammed (sal) was 40 years old. It was not revealed all at once rather it continued coming to him for a period of 23 years both in Makkah and Madina.
We can divide the subject i.e. Preservation of the Quran into 3 parts.

1. During the life time of the Prophet (sal)
2. During the life time of the 1st Caliph Abu Bakr As- Siddiq (R) - 1st writing
3. During the life time of the 4th Caliph Uthman ibn Affan (R) - 2nd writing

In Sha Allah in this series we will look at it in the chronological order.

1. During the life time of the Prophet (sal)

In the beginning when Jibreel (A)  recited the Quran , the prophet tried to repeat word for word in fear that he may forget and in his eagerness  to memorize it fast. But then later he was commanded not to do so. As mentioned in Surah Al-Qiyamah (75: 16- 18)

16. Move not your tongue with it, [O Muhammad], to hasten with recitation of the Qur'an.

17. Indeed, upon Us is its collection [in your heart] and [to make possible] its recitation.
18.So when We have recited it [through Gabriel], then follow its recitation.
Instead he was asked to listen carefully and was ensured that  Allah will make it easy for him to remember effortlessly although he was  unable to read or write.
Prophet (Sal) used various techniques to ensure that the Quran was preserved even during his lifetime. For an example:

• Anyone who entered into the fold of Islam was taught parts of Quran that was to be used in daily prayers.
• The prophet (sal) used to recite various parts of the Quran during congregational prayers, thus muslims used to hear different parts of the Quran daily.
• The prophet (sal) always encouraged the people to memorize and teach the Quran. Eg: He informed that the best of the people were those who learnt the Quran and taught it.
• The Prophet(sal) used to make people who knew to read and write to write down the various sections of the Quran , while he personally supervised them.

In this way the Quran was constantly being learnt and taught. Also, since paper was not available in Arabia at that time, the Quran was written on various materials such as date palm leaves, flat stones , tree barks , wood , dry animal skin , shoulder blades of sheep/camels and so on.

Thus during the lifetime of the Prophet (sal) the Quran was preseved in hearts of the Muslims and was available in various written formats which was owned by different muslims. However, only some companions were able to listen the entire the Quran directly from the prophet since people were accepting Islam at different points.Further, only few had memorized the entire Quran during the lifetime of the prophet  although portions of Quran were memorized by all. 

In addition to this the  Quranic verses were being revealed until a few months before prophet's death. And the companions at that time were more focused more on recording and memorizing it than compiling it in one book. Thus ,the entire Quran was not available as a compiled  book during the life time of prophet(sal).

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Preservation of the Quran P2

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

After the death of Prophet (sal) in 632 CE many groups rebelled against Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. There were some people who refused to pay Zakah to any one other than the prophet (sal). And these people were joined by the hypocrites. Further, the 3rd category consisted of the false prophets and prophetess like Tulayha, Musailimah and Sajjah who tried to change the laws of Islam. Actions were taken against these groups through a series of wars called Riddah (aka wars of Apostasy-(Arabic: حروب الردة)) . 
Note : The wars included the battle of Yamama that was fought against the army of the false prophet Musaylima.

During these wars many of those who has memorized the Quran were martyred. Umar (R) realized that the Quran has to be preserved for the  future generation as eventually all those who had memorized the Quran will die either by martyrdom in battles or naturally. So he suggested to Abu Bakr (R) who was the caliph at that time to compile the Quran into 1 volume. Initially he was hesitant as he feared he was bringing something new to the religion but later after some persuasion from Umar(R) he realized that it would only be completing something that was already started by the prophet and not adding anything new as many parts were already  written down during the prophet's time.

A committee was formed under the leadership of Zaid Ibn Thabith (R). Initially he too refused for the same reasons put forward by Abu Bakr (R) . And he was reported to have said that he would have felt easier to carry a mountain on his shoulder than to undertake such a great responsibility. However, later he realized that Umar(R) was right. Now one might wonder as to why Zaid (R) was chosen for this task out of all the other companions . And the reason for choosing him are as follows:

• He was one of the few who had memorized the entire Quran during the lifetime of prophet.
• He was one of the best reciters.
• He was one of those who the prophet had asked to write down the Quran.
• He was one of the few who was present when prophet recited the whole Quran during the last Ramadhan of prophet's life.

The committee also comprised of around 20-25 other companions who had memorized the Quran. Great care was taken when compiling the Quran. After continuous checking , rechecking and several verification the compilation was finally complete.

This script was kept with the Caliph Abu Bakr untill he died. Then it was transferred to the 2nd caliph Umar(R) who kept it with him until he passed away. It was then turned over to his daughter Hafsa (R) who was also a widow of prophet(sal). This copy of Quran came to be known as Mushaf al Hafsa. She kept it with her in Madina and made it available for anyone who wanted to refer to it.