“Do not use a tajweed coloured Quran” - Tajweed Teachers

“Do not use a tajweed coloured Quran”, are words often echoed by many tajweed teachers. Have you heard anyone say this before? Whenever I would hear those words I would think to myself, “Why?”

When I first started going to the masjid here in the UK, I was handed a copy of the colour coded Quran. I opened up the Quran and saw all these beautiful colours but I had no idea what the colours represented.  To teach me the rules I was given a buddy in class, who was two years younger than me and in every lesson, I would sit next to her. She was given the responsibility to teach me the tajweed rules. When I first heard of the terms qalqalah, ghunnah and ikhfa I was so overwhelmed and confused and the colours in the Quran didn’t help at all. I had never heard of these terms before. What was tajweed? What did all of this mean and how was this going to help me read the Quran? So when I finished the year at the masjid I still hadn’t learnt tajweed.

Many years later when I started to learn tajweed again I still felt overwhelmed with all the terminology. But alhamdullilah Allah SWT gave me an amazing teacher who made tajweed so easy to understand. How did she manage to make it so easy? Let me tell you how. Every week when we had our lesson I was so impressed at how simple, straightforward, and structured the lessons were. We would learn one rule at a time starting with the most common rules found, practicing finding the rules without a colour coded Quran and we would apply the rule in action. Every week we were given a surah to recite and dissect, so we would have to find the rules and mark them on the surah. This helped us consolidate what we learnt. And over time the rules became so easy they started to roll off my tongue.

Now after studying and teaching tajweed for a few years I understand why teachers would say “Do not use a tajweed coloured Quran”. Relying on a colour coded tajweed Quran can hinder your progress as you become reliant on it. And it can be overwhelming with so many colours and rules, when you don’t understand what they mean.

So if you don’t know the rules and you want to read with the tajweed rules what do you do? The first step is to make sincere intention and dua to learn tajweed for the sake of Allah SWT and he will show you the way! The next step is to take some action? Here are the steps I would suggest….

 1. Focus on one rule at a time

 2. Spend 10 minutes every day going through the rule for a week

 3. Find the rule and apply it in the Quran when you recite

 4. Once you are confident in the rule try teaching it to someone

Following these steps and sitting down and finding the rules without the colour coded Quran will help you pick up the rules more quickly inshaAllah. 

I would also highly recommend finding yourself a teacher who can correct your recitation. Learning via YouTube videos and even on instagram has its limits. You will be able to understand the theory but how do you know if you are making a mistake? Or would you know if you are applying the rule correctly? Reading the Quran with tajweed is all about practice and application of the rules.

Imagine when you go to Makkah and want to sit down in the haram and read the Quran, you can pick up any mushaf and you don’t have to think about whether it is colour coded or not.