Regarding the rules of tajwid currently found in books or that we study, are these in accordance with the recitation of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), or

The questioner : Regarding the rules of tajwid currently found in books or that we study, are these in accordance with the recitation of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), or do they contain additions that are not necessary?

The Shaykh : By Allah, this issue is exactly like the rulings of Islamic jurisprudence. Many of the rulings of Islamic jurisprudence have their evidence in the Book and the Sunnah, and a large portion of them goes back to independent legal reasoning and derivation. In this portion, there is error and there is correctness. To the extent that a scholar isThe student : ...firm in his knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah, to that extent he is able to sift or filter these statements. Likewise, the science of tajwid—I say this frankly, even though I am not a specialist in this science and do not have extensive experience in it, although I did receive the Qur'an and completed its recitation from my father on the reading of Hafs—but I do not have a precise scientific study of it. To the extent of my knowledge, I have found this science to be exactly like the science of jurisprudence. That is, it contains things for which there is no evidence, things for which there is evidence but it is not established, and things that are mass-transmitted from one Shaykh to another until it reaches, for example, Ubayy ibn Ka'b, one of the famous Companions who recited from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). This last category does not have a specific chapter in the books of hadith; rather, it is derived from the books of tajwid and from very few scholars of this science who combined knowledge of it with knowledge of the principles of hadith and its rules. An example comes to mind now, one I recently encountered. A Syrian wrote a treatise responding to a Saudi, who appears to be one of the reciters, a young up-and-coming one. I do not know if any of those present can remind me, because I do not memorize names, but I think our brother Ali Mushrif once introduced me to him at his house. The name of this reciter is Ibrahim al-Akhdar. Does anyone here know him?

The questioner : He is Algerian. He was an imam for a period in Medina.

The Shaykh : He is Algerian. He is of Algerian origin, and now he is there.

The questioner: In Saudi Arabia.

The Shaykh : In Saudi Arabia, and his recitation is good?

The questioner : Good.

The Shaykh : Yes, that is him. It appears this brother authored a treatise responding to this Syrian, al-Za'bi, who is from the family of al-Za'bi. In his response to al-Akhdar, al-Za'bi goes so far as to say that completing the short surahs, starting from to Surat al-Nas, involves the takbir that we hear on the radio, "Allahu Akbar," and some of them even elaborate by saying "La ilaha illa Allah, Allahu Akbar," and so on. Al-Akhdar authored a treatise—I have not looked into it—stating that this report is not authentic and that this takbir and making it a custom in these short surahs is a religious innovation. Al-Za'bi stood up to respond to him in a treatise, and this respondent, as far as I can see, is completely ignorant of the science of hadith, and of authenticating and weakening narrations. In addition to that, and Allah knows best, he is a person of bias who does not seek to reach the truth. This was one of the reasons for my eagerness to investigate this hadith, which states that when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had Ubayy ibn Ka'b recite to him, he ordered him to say takbir after every surah until the end of the Noble Qur'an. I found that this hadith, according to the method of the scholars of hadith, cannot be authenticated at all, because it contains more than one person who, although known for recitation, is not known for narrating hadith, or for its precision, accuracy, and memorization. I found that this type of practice among the reciters is based on a weak hadith that is not authentic. The point, as I mentioned earlier, is that in this science, as in the science of jurisprudence, there is what is authentic and based on narration from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and there is what is not authentic. This latter category is of two types: one type relies on some narrations that are not authentic from the perspective of hadith, and another type, like some issues in jurisprudence, relies on opinion and independent legal reasoning. Distinguishing one from the other requires a scholar who combines both sciences: the science of recitation and the science of hadith. We do not know this combination to be found in anyone except Ibn al-Jazari in his book "Al-Nashr fi al-Qira'at al-'Ashr" (The Elucidation of the Ten Readings). Even so, glory to Allah, I found him to seem to lean toward supporting the famous readings and being lenient with the less famous hadiths, and Allah knows best.