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Hafizh without tajwid?

Tajwid is a set of rules on how to read the Quran properly. Can you imagine that a person can memorize the quran (being a hafizh) without knowing how to read the Quran properly (tajwid)? Until not so long ago, I cannot. But that has changed.

The picture above shows an advertisement from a school in Maryland. If you look on the right hand side, there is an immediate opening for “FT Hifzh Teacher” which requires “having memorized the Quran with tajwid”. This requirement suggest that there are cases where people memorize the Quran without tajwid.

[The name and the address of the school in the above advert is not important, and in the picture above have been blurred.]

Apparently it is a common practice in many places (including Arab-speaking countries) for people to memorize the Quran even if the person cannot read the Quran properly. I have personally joined a congregation prayer (here in the US) where the imaam recites the Quran without tajwid. When I asked, that imaam is known to be a hafizh (having memorized the Quran).

This will usually not happen in Indonesia.

As a non-Arab speaking country (we speak Indonesian, a dialect of Malay), most of the people do not understand Arabic. Arab-speaking people might not understand this, but many people in Indonesia can read Arabic text (the Quran especially) without understanding the meaning.

When we start learning the Quran (which in most cases happen during childhood) we start to learn to read the Arabic text. But the process is totally different from a child in Arab world learning Arabic text.

In Arab speaking countries, learning Arabic text is part of the school curriculum, similar to any other children learning to read in their respective languages. When they read, the text is a sign to produce meaning. Similar to “a as in apple” kind of learning process.

Because arabic text is introduced as part of the literacy program, of course the advantage of this system is that the understanding of the meaning develops together with their ability to read. On the other hand, because this learning process is for a general arabic text, the specific rules on how to read the Quran (the tajwid) is missing from this learning process.

In Indonesia, though, the text is understood as a sign to produce sound, it does not matter what the meaning is. The students learn the Quranic text since from the very beginning, and because of that the strict rules on how to read the Quran is inherently contained within the curriculum.

After this program, the students in Indonesia would be able to read any arabic text (with diacritics), and they will pronounce any Arabic text (like song or newspaper article, as long as the text has diacritics) as they pronounce the verses in the Quran. However, they will not understand what they read.

Despite the shortcomings on the understanding part, I will argue that the Indonesian style of learning the arabic text is much better for the non-Arabic speaking people, because of two reasons:

1. The students can focus on how to produce sound only, without the burden to understand the meaning of the text. This will make the learning process faster.
2. After the students can read the Arabic text, they will be able to learn Arabic faster because they can read the text without difficulty.

In a way, this method decouples between reciting the text and reading the text as two separate process. Reciting is producing sound from a text, while reading is producing meaning from a text. In approaching the Quran as non-Arabic speaker, we should see this as two separate process.

If we are consistent with this pattern, insha Allah, we will not have to require “hafizh with tajwid” as all the hafizh should be able to read the Quran with tajwid.