Tajweed Made Easy Mastering the Letter Raa in Quranic Recitation

By now you should already know the heavy letters ط ص ض ظ غ خق These heavy letters and are known as letters of isti’la’ الحروفالمستعلية ,letters of elevation. The letter Raaرcan be heavy and light at times, but when the Raa is heavy we give it the quality of heaviness by elevating the tongue. If the Raa has Kasraِit will be read light. It is just like when you smile. Ri. For example, الْقَارِعَةُ – The Raa has kasra, its reads as al qaaria’h with smile on the Raa. If the Raa has sukoon we look at the letter before it. If it has Kasra in the same word, it is also pronounced light. فِرْعَوْنَ It reads as Fir’awn with light Raa. Here is an exception. If the Raa has sukoon and the letter before it in the same word has kasra, but the letter after the Raasakin is heavy letter and doesn’t have kasra, it is pronounced heavy. For example -78:21 – مِرْصَادًا we see Raa with sukoon, we look at the previous letter, it has kasra. So it appears the Raa will be light letter. But then we look at the letter after the Raa. It’s heavy letter. If this heavy letter doesn’t have kasra, the Raa will read heavy otherwise it will stay light. It reads miRSaadaa. If the Raa carries sukoon as result of stopping and the letter before it also has sukoon, we have to look at the letter before that letter. If it has Kasra the Raa is pronounced light. حِجْرٍ. The Raa becomes sakin because of the rules of waqf mentioned in the previous videos. The letter before the Raa is also sakin, the letter before that has kasra. It reads as Hhijr with light Raa. If the Raa carries sukoon as result of stopping and before it there is aYaaي and the Yaa carries sukoon it is pronounced light. الْخَبِيرُ The Raa becomes sakin as result of stopping. It has Yaasakin after the Raa.It reads as Al khabiir with light Raa.خَيْرٌ And here it reads Khayr with light Raa. If the Raa has fathaَor dhammaُon it, it is pronounced heavy. For example, وَرَأَيْتَالنَّاسَ (110:2) – The Raa has fatha, it is heavy. It reads waraaytannaas. It’s not ‘wara’, it’s ‘wa Ra’ with heavysound.Another example, رُسُلُ – The Raa has Dhamma, it reads Rusul with heavy Raa. If the Raa has sukoon on it, we said you look at the previous letter.If the letterbefore the Raahas fatha or dhamma, it is pronounced heavy. مَرْيَمَ This example has sukoon on the Raa. The letter before it has fatha. It will read as MaR-yam with heavy Raa.الْقُرْآنُ here it will read as al QuRaan with heavy Raa. If the Raa carries sukoon as result of stopping and the letter before it also has sukoon, we have to look at the letter before that letter too.If it has fatha or dhammah and the letter after was not sakinYaaي it is pronounced heavy. الْقَدْرِ For example, the Raa takes sukoon based on the rules of stopping. The letter before it has sukoon and is not yaasakin. The letter before that has fatha. It reads as al QadR. خُسْرٍ And here it reads as KhusR with heavy Raa. These are difficult to pronounce. If the Raa has sukoon and the letter before it is Hamzatulwaslاْ, it is pronounced heavy no matter what vowel comes before it. لِمَنِارْتَضَىٰ In this example we see Raasakin and before it there is hamzatulwasl. It reads as LiminaR tadhaa. ارْجِعِي Here it reads iRji’I with heavy Raa. This is what it looks like in summary, if the Raa is associated with kasra, it will be read light apart from the exception. If the Raa is associated with the dhamma or fatha or hamzatulwasl it will be heavy.