Recitation

Ayah Timing

Definition: A span of time in a recitation recording, given by a start and an end, corresponding to one ayah.

Purpose: Used to bind text to audio; following along while listening, jumping to an ayah, repeating it and clipping it all rest on it.

• A timing is a property of the recording, not of the ayah, so it differs from one recitation to another.
• Ayah-level timing is not word-level alignment.

Related: recitation, ayah, reciter, word_timing

Istiadhah — الاستعاذة

Definition: Seeking refuge with Allah from the Shaytan before reciting the Quran.

Purpose: Used to represent the istiadhah, its wordings, and its position relative to the start of a recitation.

Related: basmalah, recitation

Sources:

• معجم مصطلحات التجويد — 27
• النشر في القراءات العشر — 1/243

Khatmah — الختمة

Definition: Reading the Quran in full, from its beginning to its end.

Purpose: Used to track completion plans, to record that a reading was finished, and to tie sessions to the course of one khatmah.

Related: juz, manzil, recitation

Recitation — تسجيل التلاوة

Definition: A published recording of a recitation of the Quran, attributed to a reciter, a riwayah and a style of delivery.

Purpose: Used to represent the recording that timings, style and pace are attached to; it is attributed to a reciter and a riwayah and kept apart from the act of tilawah.

• A recitation is the published recording attributed to a reciter, a riwayah and a style; tilawah is the act.

Related: reciter, riwayah, recitation_style, recitation_pace, ayah_timing, word_timing, tilawah, istiadhah, khatmah, spoken_translation, tajwid, tartil

Reciter — القارئ

Definition: The person who performs a recitation of the Quran.

Purpose: Used to tie audio recordings to their performer.

• A reciter performs the recitation in a recording; they are neither an imam of a qiraah nor a rawi.

Related: recitation, rawi, muqri, ayah_timing, tilawah

Tartil — الترتيل

Definition: Reciting the Quran deliberately, making the letters and words distinct, observing the stops and the meaning.

Purpose: Used as a quality of delivery in describing a recording or a lesson, not as the name of the style a recording is published under.

• Tartil is a quality of the delivery itself; murattal is a recording style. Neither name stands for the other.

Related: murattal, recitation, recitation_pace, tilawah

Sources:

• معجم مصطلحات التجويد — 21
• النشر في القراءات العشر — 1/205

Tilawah — التلاوة

Definition: Reading the Quran in its wording, delivered aloud as the reader received it, whether in prayer, in a lesson or in a recording.

Purpose: Used for the act of reading itself where that is what is meant, as in the rulings of tilawah, its etiquette, its prostration and its teaching; the published recording of it stays recitation.

• Tilawah is the act; recitation is the published recording attributed to a reciter, a riwayah and a style of delivery.
• Tartil is an attribute of tilawah, not tilawah.

Related: recitation, tartil, sajdah, reciter

Sources:

• معجم مصطلحات التجويد — 16

Word Timing

Definition: A span of time in a recitation recording, given by a start and an end, corresponding to one word of an ayah.

Purpose: Used to highlight the word being recited while listening, to align text with audio at a level finer than the ayah, and to cut a recording at a word.

• A word timing falls inside the timing of its ayah and does not cross it.
• Audio APIs call this concept segment; the name in this standard is word_timing, because in linguistic corpora segment names the morpheme.

Related: ayah_timing, word, word_key, recitation