Tajweed made easy!!

                          

Tajweed

By the grace of Allah, I had the opportunity to attend an amazing “tajweed” class by Saima Khawaja , in ICJC, Overland Park. She is a student of  Wisam Sharieff , Bayyinah.

And Alhamdulillah, she made it so easy. Not only , did it suddenly seem easy to do, but also it became easy to explain to kids. It has become easier to teach it to my four year old. Fun,  easy & Applicable.

I would like to share these amazing tips with you.

So lets begin..:)

There are 3 parts:

• v Throat

•  Lips

•  Tongue

Let’s start with throat—

•  Base of the throat-

§  أ

§  ه

§  Hamza( sorry couldn’t get the image of the letter!!)

•  Middle of the throat—

§  ع—to pronounce this letter, imagine that you are biting an apple and saying this alphabet and take the sound out from the middle of your throat.

§  ح—Smile wide when you say this letter. Its like you are breathing out air from your mouth while smiling widely and pronouncing this letter.

•  top of the throat closest to the mouth

§  غ—like gargling sound

§  خ—like scratching the throat

Now, lips J

v و ن م ب

These are the easy ones.

For م ب – smile nicely when pronouncing these two letters.

For   و ن- make a circle with your lips when pronouncing these two letter

Lastly, the tongue

v The back of the tongue-

§  ض—the back of the tongue touches the back molar teeth without the front part of the tongue moving.

•  The middle of the tongue—

§  ص—middle of the tongue touching the front two teeth

            now clench the teeth while continuing the above action and say the alphabet.

§  ط—middle of the tongue touching the back of the top 2 teeth.

§  ظ—the middle of the tongue touching the edge of the top front teeth.

•  The tip of the tongue—

§  د ت  -- tip of the tongue behind the top 2 teeth, smile widely.

§  ث ذ – tip of the tongue at the front of the top 2 teeth

§  س – tip of the tongue behind the bottom 2 teeth

§  ش – clench the back teeth and smile widely and pronounce the alphabet.

§  ز – top and bottom teeth together, smile and pronounce the alphabet.

ك ف – are easy and the normal way to pronounce. For ف smile a little and pronounce it.

Rules of ل

•  ل on face value is always pronounced lightly.

•   Only when it appears the word “Allah” it is “heavy” If the word 
• “Allah” is attached to any other word, then look at the Vowel[ fatha(zabar), kasra(zyr),damma(pesh)] on the alphabet before “Allah”.

•  Fatha(zabar) and damma(pesh) make it heavy and Kasra(zyr) make it light

e.g. In “alhamdullilah” the ل is pronounced “heavy” as the د in the word has a damma(pesh ) on it.

inshallah, this would prove helpful to you. i will keep posting more as i learn more

a mother's last gift to her son!!

A mother’s last gift to her son.
Iqbal was sitting by the window, reading the morning newspaper.It had been 3 months since his mother had passed away. Time was slowly easing the pain.
As his eyes wandered on the page, looking for some news that would catch his interest, Iqbal felt the now familiar stirrings of pain; somewhere deep inside him as he came across a section in the paper which published some hadiths or ayats .
His mother (may Allah have mercy on her soul) due to declining health, couldn’t read as much as she used to do before. She sorely missed reading the paper. To make his mother happy, Iqbal started reading her the paper every day in the evening. Her favorite section was the “Islamic section.”
He put down the paper and decided to go for a walk. He tried very hard not to think of his mother, but memories of old kept coming back to him.
A part of him, was still that small boy who felt secure when he heard his mother’s voice.
He really wanted it back. It was so silly. He knew she wouldn’t come back now. If he could be even half as good as she wanted him to be, maybe they would meet in jannah .
At that moment, a deep need for his mother overwhelmed him and he sat down and raised his hands in dua and prayed to Allah swt to help him and some how ease this pain.
And he headed back home.
As he was preparing for bed, in the night, he was surprised to see a diary on his night stand. As he picked it up, he was assailed with the scent his mother used. It smelled of her..!!
He eagerly opened it and saw it was a diary written in her hand. It contained all the duas that she could gather over the years. She had indexed every dua according to occasion and need.
It felt so nice to hold it and read it. He felt like he was near his mother again.
He wept with thankfulness as he prostrated in front of Allah that night. This was his first isha prayer in ages. And at that moment he promised his Allah and himself , that he would spend the rest of his life trying to be that “muslim” that his mother always wanted him to be.
The next day, he got a call from his father. He told Iqbal, that right before her death, his mother had told his father to give the “dua book” to him, after she was gone. He wanted to keep the book for himself, but wanted to honor the promise he had made.

That “dua book “ my dear sisters and brothers changed Iqbal’s  life.
He became regular with his prayers, started reading Quran, and started understanding it and applying it to his life. It changed him, his family, his society, his community.
We should think what we will leave our children when we are gone.   Would we leave only material wealth or something that will make their world and the hereafter beautiful and pleasing to Allah.
A simple dua book made all the difference in so many lives.
May Allah grant maghfirat for Iqbal’s mother and all the mothers and fathers of the muslims , who have gone from this world forever ..ameen.