Qur'an learning glossary

Noorani Qaida is the introductory primer used to teach Qur'anic Arabic reading, moving a beginner from recognising individual letters to reading joined words with correct pronunciation.

It is not part of the Qur'an itself — it is the graded workbook that comes before it. A student works through letter shapes, the short and long vowels, joining rules and the basic rules of pronunciation, and only then opens the mus'haf. Most children complete it in six to twelve months of regular lessons, though this varies widely with age and how often they study.

See also: Nazra, Makhraj, Tajweed

Nazra is reading the Qur'an aloud directly from the printed text, as opposed to reciting it from memory.

The word means "by sight". A Nazra student has finished the Qaida and now works through the mus'haf itself, page by page, with a teacher correcting pronunciation and applying tajweed rules in real recitation rather than in isolated drills. Completing the full Qur'an this way is called a khatm.

See also: Noorani Qaida, Hifz, Khatm

Hifz is the memorisation of the Qur'an, in whole or in part, so that it can be recited accurately from memory.

A Hifz programme has three daily parts that most parents meet by name: sabaq (the new portion), sabqi (recent revision) and manzil (long-term revision). The revision is what actually preserves the memorisation — memorising without it means losing it at roughly the rate it is gained. A person who has memorised the entire Qur'an is called a hafiz, or hafiza for a woman.

See also: Sabaq, Sabqi and Manzil, Hafiza, Nazra

Tajweed is the set of rules governing how the Qur'an is pronounced — where each letter is articulated, how long a vowel is held, and where a reciter may stop.

The word means "to make well". The rules are not stylistic: changing a letter's articulation can change a word's meaning, which is why tajweed is taught alongside reading from the very beginning rather than added later as polish. Most of it is learned by ear from a teacher who corrects each mistake as it happens — which is the reason Qur'an is still taught one-to-one.

See also: Makhraj, Madd, Ghunnah

An ijazah is a certification granted by a qualified teacher confirming that a student has recited the Qur'an to them accurately and may now teach or transmit it themselves.

It is a licence to transmit, not a diploma from an institution. The teacher who grants it received it from their own teacher, and so on — the chain of transmission (sanad) is what the certificate actually records. An ijazah is specific: it names the riwayah recited, most commonly Hafs 'an 'Asim, and whether it covers the whole Qur'an or a portion.

See also: Riwayah, Sanad, Hafiza

A makhraj is the precise point in the mouth or throat from which an Arabic letter is articulated.

Arabic distinguishes sounds that English does not — there are several letters an English speaker would hear as roughly "s", "h" or "d". Each has its own articulation point, and using the wrong one produces a different letter and sometimes a different word. Getting the makharij right early is the single hardest and most valuable part of the Qaida stage.

See also: Tajweed, Noorani Qaida

Sabaq is the new portion a Hifz student memorises today, sabqi is the recently memorised portion revised daily, and manzil is the older material revised on a longer cycle.

Together they are the structure of essentially every Hifz programme. A student who does only sabaq appears to progress quickly and then discovers, a year in, that the early juz have gone. Parents watching a progress report will see all three tracked separately for exactly this reason.

See also: Hifz, Juz

A hafiza is a woman who has memorised the entire Qur'an; the masculine form is hafiz.

The title records memorisation, not a teaching licence — a hafiza may or may not also hold an ijazah, which certifies accurate recitation and the right to transmit. Where a tutor holds both, the two are worth naming separately, because they answer different questions about her qualification.

See also: Hifz, Ijazah

A riwayah is one of the transmitted readings of the Qur'an, differing from the others in small points of pronunciation and, occasionally, wording.

The readings all trace back to the Prophet ﷺ and are all authentic; they are transmissions, not versions. Hafs 'an 'Asim is the reading used across most of the Muslim world and in nearly every printed mus'haf a family in the UK or US will own, so it is what almost all online classes teach. Warsh 'an Nafi' is common in North and West Africa.

See also: Ijazah, Sanad

A sanad is the documented chain of teachers through which a recitation has been passed down, each having recited it to the one before.

It is the thing an ijazah certifies. In practice it means a tutor's recitation can be traced teacher by teacher rather than being self-taught from a recording — which is the distinction the certificate exists to make.

See also: Ijazah, Riwayah

A juz is one of the thirty roughly equal parts the Qur'an is divided into, so that it can be completed in a month by reading one each day.

The divisions are a reading convenience and do not follow the surahs — a juz often begins and ends mid-surah. Juz 'Amma, the thirtieth, contains the short surahs and is where most children begin memorising. In South Asian usage the same division is called a para.

See also: Surah, Hifz

A surah is a chapter of the Qur'an; there are 114, ranging from three verses to 286.

Each has a name, usually taken from a distinctive word within it, and is classified as Meccan or Medinan according to when it was revealed. Surahs are not arranged in order of revelation or length, which is why a child memorising "from the end" is starting with the short ones.

See also: Ayah, Juz

An ayah is a single verse of the Qur'an; the word also means "sign".

Verse endings are marked in the mus'haf with a circled number. They are not sentence boundaries in the English sense, which matters for recitation: where a reciter may stop and where they must not is governed by tajweed rules and by the small stop-marks printed above the line, not by the verse numbers.

See also: Surah, Tajweed

Madd is the lengthening of a vowel in recitation, held for a fixed count rather than for as long as the reciter chooses.

The length depends on the rule that caused it — commonly two, four, or six counts. It is one of the first tajweed rules a child meets, and the first place a parent listening at home can usually hear the difference between trained and untrained recitation.

See also: Tajweed, Ghunnah

Ghunnah is the nasal sound held on the letters noon and meem in certain positions, sustained for about two counts.

It is produced in the nose rather than the mouth, and it is one of the rules that most clearly separates recitation from ordinary reading aloud. Along with madd, it is usually the first thing a tutor drills once a student is reading joined words.

See also: Tajweed, Madd

A khatm is the completion of a full reading or recitation of the Qur'an from beginning to end.

Families often mark a child's first khatm — whether by reading (Nazra) or by memorisation (Hifz) — with a small gathering. In a structured programme it is a milestone with a date attached, not an open-ended aspiration, which is part of what makes progress visible to a parent.

See also: Nazra, Hifz