Bughyat al-Mustafid fi Ilm al-Tajwid
- Author died
- 1083 AH
- Editions
- دار البشائر الإسلامية للطباعة والنشر والتوزيع
Bughyat al-Mustafid fi Ilm al-Tajwid (The Seeker's Goal in the Science of Tajwid) is a concise treatise on the rules of Quranic phonetics and recitation by the Damascene Hanbali jurist and scholar Ibn Balban al-Hanbali (1006–1083 AH / c. 1597–1672 CE) .
Content and Structure
Ibn Balban composed the work as a brief introductory manual covering the fundamental rules required for anyone reciting the Quran, noting that it suffices for those who limit themselves to it while pointing more advanced students toward larger treatises . The book covers the essential topics of tajwid in sequential chapters:
- Points of Articulation (Makharij al-Huruf): The author adopts the position that there are seventeen specific points of articulation arranged across five general regions: the oral and throat cavity (al-jawf), the throat (al-halq), the tongue (al-lisan), the two lips (al-shafatan), and the nasal cavity (al-khayshum) . He details the practical method for identifying the precise articulation point of any letter by pronouncing it in a vowelless state preceded by an eliding hamzah (hamzat al-wasl) and listening to where the sound terminates .
- Attributes of Letters (Sifat al-Huruf): The treatise enumerates nineteen well-known phonetic attributes used to distinguish letters that share identical articulation points . These include paired opposite qualities—whisper (hams) versus loudness (jahr), strength (shiddah) versus softness (rakhawah) and the intermediate quality (al-tawassut), elevation (isti'la') versus lowering (istifal), adhesion (itbaq) versus openness (infitah), and fluency (dhalaq) versus muteness (ismat)—as well as singular attributes such as whistling (safir), bouncing (qalqalah), elongation (madd and lin), deflection (inhiraf), repetition (takrar), dispersion (tafashshi), and elongation of the dad (istitalah) .
- Elongation and Shortening (Al-Madd wa-l-Qasr): The work classifies elongation into natural or original (asli / tabi'i), including substitute elongation (madd al-badal), and secondary (far'i) caused either by a hamzah or an unvowelled letter (sukun) . Secondary elongations are further divided into necessary (lazim—both word-based and letter-based), obligatory connected (wajib muttasil), permissible disconnected (ja'iz munfasil), and temporary due to pause (arid li-l-sukun) .
- General Rules and Pauses: The text addresses the rules of unvowelled nun (nun sakinah) and nunation (tanwin), nasalization (ghunnah), the connective and disjunctive hamzahs (hamzat al-wasl wa-l-qat'), and the principles of beginning and pausing during recitation .
Method and Reception
The treatise is characterized by dense yet lucid prose and regular support from Quranic verses to illustrate theoretical rules with practical examples . In his introduction to the printed edition, the Syrian scholar Muhammad Kurayyim Rajih praised the text as a comprehensive summary that gathers everything indispensable for a Quranic reciter without ambiguity, highlighting its retention of classical linguistic phrasing, such as referring to the open ta' (al-ta' al-mabsutah) as al-ta' al-majrurah .
Manuscripts and Publication
Manuscript copies of Bughyat al-Mustafid are preserved in several collections:
- Maktabat Makka al-Mukarrama (MS 21111), comprising nine folios in clear Naskh script .
- The British Library (MS Or. 6272), comprising twenty-seven small folios; its colophon notes that it was transcribed from a copy made by Mustafa al-Ghazali directly from Ibn Balban's autograph manuscript .
- Dar al-Kutub al-Zahiriyya in Damascus (MS 9816), a nineteenth-century vocalized manuscript .
The treatise was edited by Ramzi Sa'd al-Din Dimashqiyyah based on the Mecca and London manuscripts and published in Beirut by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah in 1422 AH (2001 CE) as part of the Liqa' al-Ashr al-Awakhir bi-l-Masjid al-Haram series (no. 22), with annotations and a foreword by Muhammad Kurayyim Rajih .
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