nor any melodious warbling whatsoever, even though scores of specialists have probed the finest details of the letters’ points of articulation, the rules of prolongation, assimilation, clear pronunciation, and every other aspect of the Qur’anic modes of recitation. The practices of tarjīʿ and vocal ornamentation inevitably insert a hamzah where none exists and stretch sounds never meant to be stretched, turning a single alif into several alifs, a single wāw into several wāws, and one resemblance into many ambiguities,[1] thus adding to the Qur’an—and that is forbidden. Even when their embellishment happens to coincide with a legitimate place of stress (nabr) or hamzah, they multiply it into several stresses and hamzahs, whereas the nabr, wherever it occurs, is only one hamzah—either lengthened or shortened, nothing more.

If it is said: ‘ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mughaffal related that the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—recited Sūrat al-Fatḥ on his mount while travelling and employed tarjīʿ in his recitation; al-Bukhārī cited the report and described the tarjīʿ as “Āʾ, Āʾ, Āʾ” three times,’ we reply: That should be understood as simply the Prophet’s drawing out the elongations (madd) at their proper places. It may equally have been the natural modulation of his voice caused by the jolting of the animal—as happens to anyone who raises his voice while riding, the shaking compressing and breaking up the sound. If that is a plausible explanation, the report cannot serve as proof.

Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ghanī ibn Saʿīd al-Ḥāfiẓ also narrated, through the isnād of Qatādah—ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr—from his father, that ‘the recitation of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—was marked by proper elongation; it contained no tarjīʿ.’ Likewise, Ibn Jurayj transmitted from ʿAṭāʾ, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that ‘the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—had a muʾadhdhin who embellished his voice, whereupon the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said: “The adhān is meant to be simple and easy; if your adhān is simple and easy, then give the call, otherwise do not give it.”’ Al-Dāraquṭnī included this in his Sunan.

If the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—prohibited such embellishment in the adhān, it follows even more strongly that he would not allow it in the Qur’an, which the Most Merciful Himself has safeguarded. Allah—whose word is truth—said:

‘Indeed, We it is who have sent down the Reminder, and indeed We will preserve it.’[2]

And He said:

‘Falsehood cannot approach it from before it nor from behind it; [it is] a revelation from One All-Wise, Praiseworthy.’[3]

I say: This difference of opinion is admissible only so long as the meaning of the Qur’an remains intelligible despite the repetition of sounds and the abundance of vocal modulations. Once the embellishment reaches a level at which the meaning is no longer understood, it is unanimously forbidden—just as happens with certain reciters in the Egyptian lands who perform before rulers and at funerals, taking payment and gifts for it. Their effort is misguided and their enterprise has come to ruin