The Ruling on Learning Tajwid and Clarifying the Obligatory and the Supplementary
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Another questioner says: Shaykh, is it true that Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) did not consider learning the science of tajwid, but rather said that it distorts the letters?
Answer:
I do not know of this, nor do I know that the science of tajwid existed in the time of Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him). Tajwid is supplementary; it is done with moderation, without exaggeration, and is used in a balanced manner. It is a recitation that is moderate between chatter—what is chatter?—and excessive elongation, extra sounds, and raised voices. This is the recitation of the Qur'an. The obligatory tajwid is perfecting the Qur'an according to the Arabic pronunciation, such that there is no error in it; no error in raising what should be lowered or lowering what should be raised, and no changing the forms of grammatical inflection from their state. This is the obligatory tajwid. As for the tajwid of elongation, nasalization, and guttural sounds, and the like, these are supplementary elements that are taken with moderation because they are beautifiers of the recitation. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Another questioner says: Shaykh, is it true that Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) did not consider learning the science of tajwid, but rather said that it distorts the letters?
Answer:
I do not know of this, nor do I know that the science of tajwid existed in the time of Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him). Tajwid is supplementary; it is done with moderation, without exaggeration, and is used in a balanced manner. It is a recitation that is moderate between chatter—what is chatter?—and excessive elongation, extra sounds, and raised voices. This is the recitation of the Qur'an. The obligatory tajwid is perfecting the Qur'an according to the Arabic pronunciation, such that there is no error in it; no error in raising what should be lowered or lowering what should be raised, and no changing the forms of grammatical inflection from their state. This is the obligatory tajwid. As for the tajwid of elongation, nasalization, and guttural sounds, and the like, these are supplementary elements that are taken with moderation because they are beautifiers of the recitation. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 03/044 — archive.org (2:03)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.