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10. SCIENCE OF TAJWĪD (1) What is tajwīd? It is derived from the verb ََ( َج َّودto do well, to make better, to improve). The term tajwīd literally meansَ ََتحَسَيَن (beautification, improvement, betterment) and ( إَتَََقانperfection, mastery, proficiency). Technically, tajwīd is a science dealing with rules to be followed during recitation of the Qur’an according to what Muslims learned from Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. It means every letter in has to be pronounced properly, and every word in the Qur’an has to be articulate properly. It is a religious duty to do it when reciting the Qur’an to the best one’s ability. Arabic is the language of the Qur’an which has to be recited in its original texts in prayers. As Islam is embraced by various nationalities other than the Arabs, each of them has its own problem with Arabic language in general, and citing the Qur’an in particular. French people, for example, although they have letter “h” in their language, but it is not pronounced, such as “hôtel”, and “hôpital,” but when they say them in English, “hotel” and “hospital,” the letter “h” has to be pronounced clearly. They will encounter more problems in Arabic which has two kinds of “h” and which have to be articulated differently, such as the word “ḥalāl” )(حالل َ meaning “lawful, legal” and “hilāl” ) (هاللmeaning "crescent".َ Another problem is articulating the letter “kh”َ)(خ, such as the word “khilāl” َ ) (خاللmeaning “during, between, through; pin, skewer”), but the Dutch and the Germans have no problem with it, as they have it in their languages, such as “gram”, and “doch” respectively. Letter “gh”َ ) (غemitted from the throat is another letter difficult to articulate, such as “ghayr” ) ( َغيرmeaning “other than, different from.” A German student at al-Azhar in Cairo said that articulating letter “gh” in Arabic is close to letter “r” which is also emitted from the throat in German, so that to say ghayr properly it is like saying rayr, but the first “r” is slowly turned into “g”, namely, rgayr. There are two kinds of “t” in Arabic: dental “t” )(ت, such as َ (أَنmeaning “you” (masc.), and the “heavy t” )(ط, such as “anta” )ت