al-Rawda al-Nadiyya Sharh Matn al-Jazariyya
- Author died
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- Editions
- Al-Maktaba Al-Azhariyya Lil-Turath
al-Rawda al-Nadiyya Sharh Matn al-Jazariyya (The Dewy Garden: Commentary on the Jazariyya Text) is a contemporary commentary by Mahmud Muhammad Abd al-Munim Abd al-Salam al-Abd on al-Muqaddima al-Jazariyya, the foundational didactic poem on Quranic recitation (tajwid) composed by Ibn al-Jazari (751–833 AH) .
Composition and Purpose
The author completed the work before sunset on Friday, 30 Jumada al-Ula 1420 AH (10 September 1999 CE) . In the introduction, he states that he composed the commentary to provide students of the Quranic disciplines with a comprehensive yet accessible explanation of Ibn al-Jazari's poem, to address common errors committed by memorizers of the Quran, and to resolve critiques and reservations raised by some of his teachers regarding discussions found across various works of tajwid . He presents the content as the essential baseline of knowledge necessary for any student pursuing Quranic sciences .
Content and Method
The book opens with an introductory exhortation detailing the ethical conduct, sincere intention, and ascetic demeanor expected of Quran students and teachers, emphasizing that instruction of the Quran should be offered without worldly compensation . This is followed by a biographical sketch of Ibn al-Jazari outlining his birth in Damascus, education, teaching under the Eagle Dome (Qubbat al-Nasr) of the Umayyad Mosque, and death in Shiraz .
The author proceeds with a verse-by-verse exposition of the poem:
- Linguistic and Theological Preliminaries: He analyzes terms in the opening verses, defining linguistic and technical terms (such as matn, al-Rabb, and the theological distinctions between a prophet and a messenger) .
- Phonetics and Recitation Rules: He covers the seventeen points of articulation (makharij al-huruf), the intrinsic and conditional phonetic attributes of letters (sifat al-huruf), rules of velarization and thinning (al-tarqiq wa-l-tafkhim), the rulings of the letters ra' and lam, assimilation, and the rules of nun sakina and nunation .
- Orthography and Pausation: He discusses stopping and starting (al-waqf wa-l-ibtida'), connected and disconnected script (al-maqtu' wa-l-mawsul), and the orthography of the feminine ta' (ta' al-ta'nith) in the Uthmanic codices .
- Concluding Rulings: The work concludes with rules governing the elision and retention of the final letter ya' during stopping versus continuous reading in the transmission of Hafs, such as the variant in Surah al-Naml (27:36) .
Throughout the exposition, the author integrates commentary notes, linguistic dictionaries, and earlier classical explanations of the Jazariyya, such as al-Daqa'iq al-Muhkama by Zakariyya al-Ansari .
Publication
The work was published in Cairo by al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya li-l-Turath, featuring text correction and editorial notes by al-Sadat al-Sayyid Mansur Ahmad .
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