Throughout the course of the program, we participated in clubs that met once a week and were focused on different aspects of Arab and Islamic culture, and life in Jordan. The club that I decided to attend was تجويد (Tajweed), which is the name for the science/art of Quranic recitation. Little did I know that there is an entire set of rules for how the Quran is supposed to be read aloud. (I should briefly point out that adherence to Tajweed is only required of imams and those who are reciting the Quran in public ceremonies. Most Muslims don't recite the Quran according to Tajweed when they are simply reading to themselves.) So, over the past 6 weeks or so, I learned some of these rules. It was not easy.
One difficulty is that some of the letters are pronounced differently in Tajweed than in normal Arabic. These letters are pronounced with emphasis, only half-pronounced, or not pronounced at all depending on the letters/vowels surrounding them. Another difficulty is that you must remember to hold long vowels for a certain amount of time and short vowels for another. Sometimes long vowels are held for 2 beats, other times 4, or 6, depending on the position in the verse. Along with these rules, you must be able to make your voice sound very nasal sometimes, and very clear at others. This is also determined by letters and context. These are just some of the many rules that exist in Tajweed, many of which we didn't even have time to cover.
With so many rules, we never really expected to come close to mastering Tajweed in a few short weeks; people train to do this for years. One of our professors at the language center, Dr. Ahmad, was trained in Tajweed, so he was the one who ran the club. He has an incredible voice and knows many parts of the Quran by heart. It was very impressive to see/hear him recite whole surahs (chapters) by memory. I say recite, but what you hear in Tajweed is closer to a song than it is to a simple reading of a text. Much of the Quran was written in a very poetic form that bursts forth with musical quality. It really is cool to listen to.
Listening and doing are two different things however. Every week, Dr. Ahmad made sure that everybody in the class had a turn trying to recite the passages that we were looking at. It was a very difficult, and slightly awkward experience to have to sing/recite the Quran in front of everybody, but I enjoyed it. Dr. Ahmad would always recite the passage line by line (or sometimes only half at a time) and we would have to repeat it exactly...well, close to exactly. It became clear that Dr. Ahmad was not going to allow us to slide by and mispronounce the words. This is the Quran, after all, and must be read exactly as intended.
Many of the students, including myself, struggled with pronouncing the words in the right way and sticking to the correct rhythm and tone. Fortunately, I have a musical ear and a good ability to mimic sounds, so this helped me pick up on the technique pretty fast. However, when Dr. Ahmad saw that I could handle shorter passages, he started to lengthen the amounts of words that I had to recite and this didn't turn out so great. My ability to mimic sounds could only last for a very small number of words, and then after that I had to rely on applying the rules and reading the words correctly, which definitely did not happen. Though he insisted on correct pronunciation, Dr. Ahmad was gracious and light-hearted in his approach because he knew that we were just interested in learning a bit. So, despite our constant errors, we had a good time just sitting around and trying to learn as much as we could. We also got to hear a lot of cool renditions of the Quran.
To give you an idea of what Tajweed sounds like, I looked up a couple youtube videos of Abdul-Basit, one of the most famous practitioners of Tajweed. In the video where you see him reciting the verses, he puts his hands by his ears to block out all other sounds because he is doing this all from memory and must concentrate to recall it all. He also covers his mouth sometimes and this effects the sound that comes out. If you are intrigued, you can check these videos out at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEnqBUdIGc4&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK-mxZC1GFk (pay attention to how long he goes without taking a breath in this video - this guys has some serious lungs!)
One difficulty is that some of the letters are pronounced differently in Tajweed than in normal Arabic. These letters are pronounced with emphasis, only half-pronounced, or not pronounced at all depending on the letters/vowels surrounding them. Another difficulty is that you must remember to hold long vowels for a certain amount of time and short vowels for another. Sometimes long vowels are held for 2 beats, other times 4, or 6, depending on the position in the verse. Along with these rules, you must be able to make your voice sound very nasal sometimes, and very clear at others. This is also determined by letters and context. These are just some of the many rules that exist in Tajweed, many of which we didn't even have time to cover.
With so many rules, we never really expected to come close to mastering Tajweed in a few short weeks; people train to do this for years. One of our professors at the language center, Dr. Ahmad, was trained in Tajweed, so he was the one who ran the club. He has an incredible voice and knows many parts of the Quran by heart. It was very impressive to see/hear him recite whole surahs (chapters) by memory. I say recite, but what you hear in Tajweed is closer to a song than it is to a simple reading of a text. Much of the Quran was written in a very poetic form that bursts forth with musical quality. It really is cool to listen to.
Listening and doing are two different things however. Every week, Dr. Ahmad made sure that everybody in the class had a turn trying to recite the passages that we were looking at. It was a very difficult, and slightly awkward experience to have to sing/recite the Quran in front of everybody, but I enjoyed it. Dr. Ahmad would always recite the passage line by line (or sometimes only half at a time) and we would have to repeat it exactly...well, close to exactly. It became clear that Dr. Ahmad was not going to allow us to slide by and mispronounce the words. This is the Quran, after all, and must be read exactly as intended.
Many of the students, including myself, struggled with pronouncing the words in the right way and sticking to the correct rhythm and tone. Fortunately, I have a musical ear and a good ability to mimic sounds, so this helped me pick up on the technique pretty fast. However, when Dr. Ahmad saw that I could handle shorter passages, he started to lengthen the amounts of words that I had to recite and this didn't turn out so great. My ability to mimic sounds could only last for a very small number of words, and then after that I had to rely on applying the rules and reading the words correctly, which definitely did not happen. Though he insisted on correct pronunciation, Dr. Ahmad was gracious and light-hearted in his approach because he knew that we were just interested in learning a bit. So, despite our constant errors, we had a good time just sitting around and trying to learn as much as we could. We also got to hear a lot of cool renditions of the Quran.
To give you an idea of what Tajweed sounds like, I looked up a couple youtube videos of Abdul-Basit, one of the most famous practitioners of Tajweed. In the video where you see him reciting the verses, he puts his hands by his ears to block out all other sounds because he is doing this all from memory and must concentrate to recall it all. He also covers his mouth sometimes and this effects the sound that comes out. If you are intrigued, you can check these videos out at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEnqBUdIGc4&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK-mxZC1GFk (pay attention to how long he goes without taking a breath in this video - this guys has some serious lungs!)
No comments:
Post a Comment