Rules for ن sakinah and tanwin Part 1

Salam alaikum wa rahmatu Allahi wa BarakatuHu. Peace be upon the followers of guidance.





May Allah reward you for your effort to learn the tajwid, continuing on the footsteps of our noble ulema. Our love for our ulema expresses our love for Allah the One Who is always without any partners.

There are 4 rules on how to pronounce ن sakinah and tanwin. Whenever you find a ن with sakoon ( نْ ) or a letter with tanwin ( ً ٍ ٌ ) like بً بٍ بٌ , the nun sound would be pronounced in one of these four ways. The way it is pronounced depends on what letter comes afterwards. This is how our noble ulema of tajwid in the past pronounced them. They are summarized in the following table:

Rule	Letters	Pronounciation
اظهار	ء      ه    ع    ح     غ       خ اخي هاك علم حازه غير خاسر	Clear.
اقلاب	ب	ن sound changes to م
ادغام	يومن ghunnah لر    non-ghunnah	Eaten by the following Letter.
اخفاء	(rest of the letters)	Hidden.

1. اظهار CLEAR


The first way to pronounce the ن sakinah and tanwin is اظهار CLEAR. In this way of pronounciation, the ن sakinah and tanwin is pronounced clearly, and brief. The ن sakinah and tanwin is not pronounced extended, and the sound is completed immediately without any prolongation. It is good, whenever you see this case, to shorten the sound of the ن sakinah and tanwin. It is not appropriate to extend the sound like in the other cases.


The ن sakinah and tanwin is pronounced this way, اظهار CLEAR , whenever it is preceded by a letter of the throat. There are six letters that are emitted from the throat, as taught to us by our ulema. They are divided into three sections with two letters in each section. Asfal halq (lowest throat), wasatal halq (middle throat), adnal halq (closest top throat).

It is incumbant on all students of tajwid to memorize the following sentence, which is taught to us by our shuyukh in order to help us remember the letters of the throat:

أَخِي هَاكَ عِلْمً حَازَهُ غَيْرُ خَاسِرٍ

Look at the first letter of each of the words above. The first letter of each word represents the letters of the throat, starting with the lower throat, then the middle throat, and then the top throat. There are 2 letters in each section.

Lower Throat: ا and ه , that is أَخِي هَاكَ .
Middle Throat: ع and ح , that is عِلْمً حَازَهُ .
Top Throat: غ and خ , that is غَيْرُ خَاسِرٍ .


The meaning of the sentence above is: "My brother take knowledge (the one that) acquires it (is) without loss." Repeat the sentence, until you have memorized it by heart. Also repeat it tommorow and the following day and days afterwards so that it becomes thabit (firm). It will be used in a few places in the rules of tajwid.



أَخِي هَاكَ عِلْمً حَازَهُ غَيْرُ خَاسِرٍ

أَخِي هَاكَ عِلْمً حَازَهُ غَيْرُ خَاسِرٍ

أَخِي هَاكَ عِلْمً حَازَهُ غَيْرُ خَاسِرٍ

أَخِي هَاكَ عِلْمً حَازَهُ غَيْرُ خَاسِرٍ

أَخِي هَاكَ عِلْمً حَازَهُ غَيْرُ خَاسِرٍ



Our noble ulema have explained to us that the reason the ن sakinah and tanwin is pronounced clearly, before any of the letters of the throat, is because their emission points are far apart. The ن sakinah and tanwin is pronounced from the tip of the tongue, and the letters of the throat are pronounced far away from this point, further than the back of the mouth.

The ن sakinah pronounced this way, اظهار CLEAR , could be in a single word by itself, or between two words. The tanwin however pronounced this way, اظهار CLEAR , can only be found between two words.

Listen to the following ayat:

{وَمِن شَرِّ حَاسِدٍ إِذَا حَسَدَ}

Did you notice the pronounciation of the tanween in "حَاسِدٍ" ? The tanween in "حَاسِدٍ" is pronounced with اظهار CLEAR, because the letter after it is hamza "إِ" . In this way of pronounciation, tanwin is pronounced clearly, and brief. The tanwin is not pronounced extended, and the sound is completed immediately without any prolongation. It is good, whenever you see this case, to shorten the sound of the ن sakinah and tanwin. It is not appropriate to extend the sound like in the other cases. Compare it to the pronounciation of the ن sakinah in "مِن".

Listen to the following ayats, and specify the places where ن sakinah and tanwin اظهار are pronounced اظهار CLEAR, and the reason why.

{وَمِن شَرِّ حَاسِدٍ إِذَا حَسَدَ}

{صِرَٲطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنۡعَمۡتَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ}

{مَآ أَغۡنَىٰ عَنۡهُ مَالُهُ ۥ وَمَا ڪَسَبَ}

{إِنَّآ أَرۡسَلۡنَا نُوحًا إِلَىٰ قَوۡمِهِۦۤ أَنۡ أَنذِرۡ}

Did you notice which letters followed the ن sakinah and tanwin? Whenever you see these letters following ن sakinah and tanwin, be sure to pronounce it with اظهار CLEAR. The letters of اظهار CLEAR are the first letter of each word found in the following sentence.

أَخِي هَاكَ عِلْمً حَازَهُ غَيْرُ خَاسِرٍ

Repeat after the following ayats:

{وَمِن شَرِّ حَاسِدٍ إِذَا حَسَدَ}

{صِرَٲطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنۡعَمۡتَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ}

{مَآ أَغۡنَىٰ عَنۡهُ مَالُهُ ۥ وَمَا ڪَسَبَ}

{إِنَّآ أَرۡسَلۡنَا نُوحًا إِلَىٰ قَوۡمِهِۦۤ أَنۡ أَنذِرۡ}

Also as practice recite the first few ayats of Surah Gashiya, emphasizing the pronounciation ن sakinah and tanwin with اظهار CLEAR.





2. اقلاب FLIP


The next way to pronounce the ن sakinah and tanwin is called اقلاب FLIP. In this way of pronounciation, the ن sakinah and tanwin changes (or flips) to a م sakinah . This occurs whenever the ن sakinah and tanwin is preceded by the letter ب . Our ulema of tajwid have taught us that the right way of pronounciation in this case would be to pronounce with a م sound instead of the ن sound.

One of our noble scholars of the madhahib, may Allah have mercy on him and on all of the people of knowledge, is named Ahmed ibn Hanbal:

احمد ابن حنبل

The pronounciation is Ahmed ibn Hambal. The ن sakinah in his name is flipped to a م sound. The "N" sound changes to a "M" sound.

It is incumbant on all of us to follow on the footsteps of our noble scholars of the past, and avoid innovations. This also applies to the way we pronounce and recite the Quran.

The reason the ن sound is flipped to a م sound when preceded by a ب is because the ب is pronounced at the lips with the mouth closed. When the mouth is closed, the م sound is emitted instead of the ن sound. The nasalization (ghunnah) comes out with a "mmmm" sound instead of a "nnnnn" sound.

The اقلاب flip can occur in one word, like:
{ أَنْبِئْهُمْ }

or between two words like:
{ أَنْ بُورِكَ }

or after a tanwin like:
{ سَمِيعٌ بَصِيرٌ }



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These are the first two ways to pronounce the ن sakinah and tanwin. Allah willing, in the next lesson we will go over the other two ways.