Ar-Rikhaawah vs Ash-Shiddah vs At-Tawassut

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Following on from the Al-Hams Vs Al-Jahr post, the second batch from the characteristics with opposites is Ar-Rikhaawah and its opposite – Ash-Shiddah. However, there is a characteristic that is in the middle of these 2 opposites and that is At-Tawassut (The medium/intermediary).

Ar-Rikhaawah refers to the continuation of the sound when pronouncing a letter. For instance:

 اَذْ

The above is pronounced “Adhhh”; however, if one wishes the sound of the letter dhaal can be extended i.e. adhhhhh. This is because, the letter Dhaal is from the weak letters. The rest of the letters of Ar-Rikhawah are easily identified as being those other than the letters of Ash-Shiddah and At-Tawasut (simply because, the letters of Ar-Rikhawah are more than Ash-Shiddah and At-Tawasut. It is easier to identify the letters of Ash-Shiddah and At-Tawussut as the scholars have gathered the letters of the former and latter in small phrases to make memorisation/identification easier. Therefore, one can use the process of elimination to identify the letters of Rikhaawah).

Ash-Shiddah is the opposite of Ar-Rikhaawah. This is where it is not possible to continue the sound of the letter after pronouncing it. This is because, the letters of shiddah are from the stronger letters. i.e.

اَقْ

The above phrase is pronouced “Aq”. Notice, it is extremely difficult to prolong this pronounciation in the same way we did for the aforementioned Rikhaawah example. This is the actualisation of the characteristic of Ash-Shiddah. The letters of Ash-Shiddah are gathered in the following phrase:

أَجِدْ قَطٍ بَكَتْ

“Ajid Qatin Bakath”

At-Tawassut are those letters that are in the middle of Shiddah and Rikhaawah. Therefore, one can continue the sound when pronouncing the letters of Tawassut but, not as long as you can with letters of Rikhaawah. The letters of At-Tawassut are gathered in the following phrase:

لِن عُمَرْ

“Lin ‘Umar”

All the remaining letters after the above 2 phrases are from the letters of Rikhaawah.

To make things clearer, please watch the above video to understand what is meant when we say “prolonging/continuing the sound of the letter when pronounced“.

For an example of a letter of Ash-Shiddah; of which the sound of the letter cannot be continued/pronounced, watch the clip from 1 min 30 secs. The sheikh gives an example using the letter ب. You cannot delve on the Baa once pronounced as the sheikh clearly shows.

For an example of a letter of Tawassut – view the clip at 2 mins 58 seconds. The sheikh gives an example using the letter ر. You can clearly see the sheikh showing that the sound of the ر can be prolonged i.e. “Arrr”. This is in contrast to the letter ب (from the letters of Ash-Shiddah) which could not be prolonged in the same way. The sheikh also gives an example using the letter ع at 3 mins & 25 seconds into the clip.

For an example of a letter of Rikhawah – view the clip at 2 mins 01 seconds where the sheikh gives an example of the continuation of the sound when pronouncing the letter ه (haa). The sound of the ه clearly continues which is in stark contrast to the letters of Shiddah. The letters of Rikhawah’s continuance are lengthier than you would find in the pronunciation of the letters of At-Tawassut.

Note: Although, examples were given using phrases in the sukoon form – Al-Jahr and Al-Hams are general characteristics and are not restricted to sukoon form. Examples were given using sukoon to make it easy to comprehend.