Reading

Now we know that there's a set of rules

for the way the Arabic letters and words work together

and the right way to say them together

when we read the Qur'an.

This set of rules is what we call Tajweed,

and often there's a special mark on the page

to show that this is a place for a certain rule to be used.

Unfortunately, sometimes different marks are used to mean the same thing.

So it's useful to know the most important rules of tajweed

so that you don't have to rely on those special marks to be able to recite the Qur'an correctly.

And of course the only way we can really learn to read

is to have someone show us how.

When we learn a language from our parents when we are babies,

they don't teach us how to read and write it before we learn to speak it.

That wouldn't make sense.

We hear them use words

and realise that they mean something,

and try to copy what they say back to them.

And they hear the noises that we make

and try to guess what it is we are trying to say,

and help us to say the words correctly

until we have learned our first words,

and then more,

until we know how to speak their language

and then we can be understood

by anyone else that speaks it.

And so it is with the Arabic language of the Qur'an.

We need someone else to teach us how to speak it.

We need someone to tell us how to say the words

in a way that other people can recognise what we are saying and understand it,

so that we aren't just making sounds like babies.

And of course, like any other language, we can learn to make sounds that are words

that other people who speak the language recognise and understand,

even if we can't understand them ourselves.

But it can be hard to see the point of it all if we don't understand what those words mean.

After all, that is what language is for in the first place.

What are the first rules we need to know?