Recordings of Qurrā’ Reciting with the Classical ض

بسم الله جل وعلا، والحمد لله وكفى، وسلام على عباده الذين اصطفى، خصوصا على خير الورى محمد المجتبى، صلى الله عليه وسلم عند سدرة المنتهى، وعلى آله وصحبه ومن تلا، وبعد

The purpose of this compilation is to disprove the common misconception that the ض which resembles ظ is an innovation from the Indian Subcontinent and a result of the inability of reciters from that region to pronounce ض. This could not be more insulting to the scholars of that region who exerted every last effort for the preservation of this tradition. To claim that the expert reciters who possess legitimate asānīd are incapable of pronouncing letters or are deficient in preserving this science is incredibly prejudiced, and this prejudice must be eliminated.

Today, this pronunciation has been preserved by both Arab and non-Arab reciters. The reality is that being Arab or non-Arab has no bearing on whether or not an opinion of tajwīd is correct. What matters is a pronunciation backed by a legitimate isnād and corroborated by the authoritative texts.

Qāri Muḥammad Yaḥyā Sharīf al-Jazā’irī حفظه الله, a leading authority on tajwīd and a strong contemporary advocate for this pronunciation

Qāri ʿUbayd Allah b. ʿAṭā رحمه الله, teacher of Qur’an at Masjid al-Nabawi ﷺ, the teacher of the above-mentioned reciter, and author of the famous treatise on ض which can be found online here

Qāri ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-ʿAsīrī, an Imam at a masjid in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Qāri Ilhan Tok حفظه الله, a reputable and famous reciter in Turkey

Maulana Yusuf Desai حفظه الله from Durban, South Africa

Qāri ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Raḥīmī حفظه الله, a well-known reciter of the Raḥīmī Pānīpattī reading tradition of the subcontinent. The Pānīpattī tradition has preserved this ض

Hazrat Qāri Ayoob Essack (Ayyūb Isḥāq) حفظه الله circa 1996, Shaykh al-Qurrā’ of South Africa and the teacher of my teachers. This is also how his teacher, Qāri Anīs Aḥmad Khān رحمه الله, described it and many of his direct students told me he recited it like this.

Qāri Fatih Çollak حفظه الله, a well-known authority of tajwīd in Turkey and a strong advocate for this pronunciation

Qāri Fawzī al-Saʿīd رحمه الله, who was an Imam at a masjid in Cairo

Qari Ashraf Shareef, son of Qari Muhammad Shareef Lahori (ra), the author of سبیل الرشاد فی تحقیق تلفظ الضاد. I had the pleasure of visiting the madrasa established by Qari Muhammad (ra) in Lahore and reciting to his sons with this pronunciation.

Shaykh Ibrahim Sudais, the brother of the Imam of the Haram

In addition this account on YouTube has uploaded cassette recordings of many Arab scholars who recite and advocate for the ض which resembles ظ. Among them is Shaykh al-Qurrā’ al-Samannūdī (ra), who is one of the largest authorities of tajwīd in recent history, and the teacher of many famous reciters that we know today.

There are hundreds if not thousands of other qualified reciters out there that still recite with this pronunciation today. These are merely a few examples that I have managed to find on the internet. It is a mistake to assume this pronunciation has died out or is not backed by legitimate chains of transmission.

وما علينا إلا البلاغ المبين، وصلى الله على سيدنا وسندنا محمد وسلم، والحمد لله رب العالمين