The Role of Phonetic Approaches in the Sciences and Techniques of Qurʾānic Recitation

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Corresponding Author, Assistant Professor, Al-Mustafa International University, Higher Education Complex for Quran and Hadith, Qom, Iran.

Abstract

Objective: This article aims to examine the role and impact of various branches of phonetics in the development and refinement of Qurʾānic studies, particularly the science of tajwīd. The author seeks to demonstrate how different subfields of this modern linguistic discipline contribute to a deeper understanding of the Qur’an’s phonetic subtleties, the improvement of recitation pedagogy, and the analysis of its rhetorical and acoustic inimitability.
Method: The study employs a descriptive–analytical method based on library research. Relevant data were collected through an extensive review of authoritative sources in both phonetics and Qurʾānic sciences. A comparative approach was subsequently adopted to correlate the various phonetic branches with core discussions in tajwīd and qirāʾāt (canonical recitations).
Findings: The findings indicate that the three principal branches of phonetics—articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics—play a fundamental role in precisely explaining the makhārij al-ḥurūf (points of articulation), phonetic features (ṣifāt), and rules of pronunciation, as well as in analyzing suprasegmental phenomena such as melodic patterns and pause structures (waqf) .
Additionally, subsidiary branches—including applied phonetics in teaching the Qur’an to non-Arabic speakers, clinical phonetics in treating articulation disorders, historical phonetics in tracing diachronic sound change, and psychological phonetics in examining the reciprocal relationship between Qur’anic sound and human cognition and emotion—demonstrate significant applications in Qurʾānic studies.
Conclusion: With its diverse orientations, phonetics provides innovative tools and perspectives for updating and enriching the traditional science of tajwīd. Employing these advances may enhance the precise understanding of the Qur’an’s acoustic inimitability, elevate the quality of recitation instruction, and offer scientific solutions for speech-related difficulties in Qurʾānic performance.

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 06 September 2025
  • Revise Date: 04 November 2025
  • Accept Date: 02 December 2025

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