Monday Extensive Speaking

Monday Extensive Speaking 3

Monday Extensive Speaking (MES) is one of newest programs launched by Yayasan Pendidikan Raudlatul Ulum (YPRU) besides Tahfidz, Multimedia Activities, Special Class, and others. Its presence is as a proof that YPRU always keeps improving, in a line with its motto, “One steap ahed in both ‘ilmu amaly and amal ilmy.” MES is a program delivered by Syaikh Ahmad Ragab Abdela Dessouki from Egypt in every two weeks, and it talked about Islamic things in English           .

There are two sessions in every MES meeting; the material delivery and the Q&A session. Monday, October 10^th 2022 was the third meeting of MES, and Syaikh took “The Secret of Tajwid Rules” as the topic. The secret here meant the reasons of the rule.

Syaikh asked students in the beginning, “You learn all tajwid rules and you know them, right? But do you know why? Why is idzhar pronounced clearly, while ikhfa’ is not? Anyone knows?” The students only smiled and were doubt to answer at first, then Syaikh said, “Okay, I will explain something first, you may know the answer later.”

Syaikh then told students about some signs in Al-Qur’an. There is fathah which makes us open our mouths, dhommah which makes us move our mouth, kasroh which makes our voice down, and sukun which makes our mouth stop.

Then Syaikh told us about the differences of nun sukun and tanwin. There are four differences he stated:

1.        Nun sukun is an original letter, while tanwin is not; it is a sign.

2.       Nun sukun is a part of any word that you cannot remove, while tanwin is not; it is an addition.

“In the word عن, we cannot remove the nun sukun, because it is the part of the word. It is impossible to remove it and leave the ع alone. It will be nothing (meaningless).

While for tanwin, we can remove it without any problem. The word will still exist. For example, in a word جاء محمد من المسجد (Jaa a Muhammadun minal masjid), we can either put or remove the dhomah tanwin in the word ‘Muhammadun’, because ‘Muhammad’ itself has been a word.”

 Syaikh then gave students example, “Nun sukun is like your hand or your head, it is a part of your body. You cannot be without them. While tanwin is like an accessory we wear, it is like your veil, my turban, or our clothes. We can take them off or change them, and everything will be fine.”

3.         Nun sukun is always pronounced, while tanwin is not.

4.        You can find nun sukun in kalimah huruf (like من, عن, dan إن), nouns, or verbs, while tanwin will be only found in nouns. “It must be,” Syaikh said.

5.        Nun sukun can come in the middle or in the end of words, while tanwin will always come in the end.

After telling students about nun sukun and tanwin, Syaikh taught more about idzhar, idgham, iqlab, and ikhfa’. Where the “factory” that produces the sounds are, where the “exits” of the sounds are, what they are like, and so on. Syaikh even drew a picture of human’s voice production system on the whiteboard and explained it one by one.

There was a funny thing when Syaikh taught about iqlab, “In iqlab, it is like there is a ‘fight’ between nun and ba, because the sound sources are close each other (nun is when your tip of front tongue touches your upper mouth behind your front teeth, while ba is when you produce voice from inside through your lips). To make them make up, then there is a ‘police’ or ‘judge’ called mim, which can finally be their win-win solution.” All students laughed.

Syaikh added, though mim is pronounced on human lips as well, but it is from outside, not the same with ba which is from inside.

In the end of the first session, Syaikh requestioned his previous question about “Why?” Why is something pronounced like this (in tajwid), why is something like that?”

Some of students try to answer, and in short, it can be concluded like this:

1.    Because every rule in tajwid is logical, they are in accordance with human anatomy (sound production system)

2.       Because it is to prevent the “fight” of the letters which have the same “exit”

3.       Because it is to make it easier in pronouncing words, etc.

And Syaikh responded, “GREAT.”

After the material delivery, there came the Q&A session.

The first question from a student was, “Is this true that people who experience the Judgement Day are the worst ones?”

Once more time, Syaikh joked, “Your question is only yes or no, right? So, YES.” Everyone laughed. After that, Syaikh continued his explanation. Long story short, he said that a good person will see good things when he/she dies. When a good person dies, he/she will say “Seeing the beauty of the angel of death (Izrail) is enough, I no longer hope to see the beauty of paradise (due to the angel’s beautiful appearance). “

While for the bad people, to see how scary the Judgement Day is enough as well, because it has represented the description of the real hell. Naudzubillahi mindzaalik.

The second question from the student was, “Will Allah punish those who were born before Prophet Muhammad? They didn’t know Islam though.”

Syaikh answered, “Before the era of Prophet Muhammad, people were simply divided into good and bad guys. Those who were good, who didn’t commit any crimes, were found as believers, and Allah will not punish them. While for those who did any crimes like murdering others etc. were found as disbelievers because they didn’t have hearts.”

Syaikh also gave a little bit explanation of the purity of Rasulullah’s parents though they were not Moslems (Because there was no Islam yet). After there was no more question, Syaikh closed the meeting and said salaam to all students.

 

Masya Allah. Alhamdulillah.

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