Tilāwah: Sūrah al-Baqarah Verses 260 to 266 & Sūrah Ibrāhīm Verses 32 to  41

Qirāʾah: Ibn Wardān ʿan Abī Jaʿfar and Warsh ʿan Nāfiʿ

Today, the 4th of Muharram was a bright day in the world of Qirāʾāt. Shehzada Husain bhaisaheb Burhanuddin Saheb (DM) chose to recite the qirāʾah of Abū Jaʿfar al-Madanī, an eminent qārī of Medina whose reading was overseen by Maulānā ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAbbās among others. This reading has reached us through the tarīq (طريق) of Durrah, a composition by Ibn al-Jazarī which contains three readings, complementing the Hirz al-Maʿānī of al-Shāṭibī (which contains seven), thereby completing the ten authentic qirāʾāt. 

The verses of Sūrah al-Baqarah were, in their entirety, recited in the reading of Abū Jaʿfar. This reading has several distinguishing properties some of which are discussed below:

1. Abū Jaʿfar has completely omitted the use of imālah even from the word majrāhā (مجرىها). 
2. Abū Jaʿfar performs ikhfāʾ of the silent (sākin) letter nūn (نون) even when there are the letters ghayn (غين) and khāʾ (خاء) after it. Today, Shehzada Saheb (DM) performed ikhfāʾ at the tanwīn of maghfiratun (مغفرة) in the phrase مغفرة خير (maghfiratun-khayr).
3. Abū Jaʿfar elongates the mīm (ميم) of plurality for two ḥarakāt. Unlike Warsh, Abū Jaʿfar does not engage the madd al-ṣilah al-kubrā because Abū Jaʿfar does not acknowledge the madd munfaṣil. Shehzada Saheb (DM) duly elongate all such mīm. 
4. He replaces the hamzah mufradah with the corresponding ḥarf al-madd when the hamzah mufradah occurs within a single word. Of note are the two words from today’s recitation: meʾat to meyat (مئة -> مية) and riʾā to riyāʾ (رئاء -> رياء).

The second part of the recitation contained verses from Sūrah Ibrāhīm. This recitation was delivered in the reading of Warsh ʿan Nāfiʿ, the second most common Qur’anic reading in the world. Nāfiʿ, also a Madanī, had his reading overseen by Maulānā ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAbbās among others. Today’s differences in this reading were as follows: 

1. The elongation of the madd munfaṣil, madd badal and the naql al-ḥarakah. (Refer to the previous article).
2. Imālah that is optional in Warsh was engaged by Shehzada Saheb (DM) in the word wa-ʾātākum (وءاتىكم) which was recited as wa-ʿātaekum. 
   
3. The lām in the word ṣalāh (صلوة) was recited with tafkhīm. Listen here.
4. Madd Līn in the word shayʾ (شيئ). 

Tajweed Answers!

The previous articles in this series attracted a few questions which have been attempted to be answered below: 

Q. What is the maqām of ḥijāz?

A. Among the most perfect Arabian maqāmāt, this maqām induces its audience into emotions of spirituality and reverence. Reciters like Shaikh Abdul Basit excelled in this maqām. Here is an example. 

Q.  Kindly share a visual display of the differences in each qirāʾāt if possible.  

A. In order to quickly refer to the differences in the readings of the various qurrāʾ, one should consider reading from a muṣ-ḥaf that contains all the ten readings together. The commentary in the margins will immediately help distinguish between the various readings. 

Q. When Shehzada Saheb (DM) recited واذا البحار سجرت (sujirat and not sujjirat). Is it the same reading of al-Sūsī ʿan Abī ʿAmr? Can u give a brief on how many such letters the ḥarakah of tashdeed is skipped on?

A. There are certain places where a particular qārī differs from his colleagues without basing such difference on a principle. Such differences are also known as furushāt. These do not conform to a fixed rule and differ from narration to narration and reading to reading. The difference in sujirat is part of the furushāt and is not part of the uṣūl.