Stopping sounds like the easiest part of reciting: you run out of breath, you stop. But where you stop can change the meaning of what you just said. The classic example is لَا تَقْرَبُوا الصَّلَاةَ, "do not go near prayer" (an-Nisa 4:43). Stop there and you have said the opposite of the verse, which continues "while you are intoxicated". This is why scholars treat waqf as part of tajweed rather than an afterthought. 'Ali ibn Abi Talib is reported to have described tartil as "giving the letters their proper sounds and knowing where to stop".

The four kinds of stop

Classical scholars grade stops by how complete the meaning is at that point:

• Tamm (complete): the meaning is complete and the next part is not connected to it, usually the end of a topic or story. Stop and start again from the next word.
• Kafi (sufficient): the sentence is complete, but the next part is still connected in meaning. Fine to stop and start from the next word.
• Hasan (good): the words make sense, but the next part is grammatically connected. You can stop, but when you continue it is better to go back a word or two.
• Qabih (bad): the meaning is incomplete or distorted, like the example above. Avoid it unless you are forced to by breath, and then go back and restart properly.

The stopping marks in the mushaf

Most modern mushafs, including the Madinah print, put small symbols above the line to guide you:

An example of a required stop: وَلَا يَحْزُنْكَ قَوْلُهُمْ ۘ إِنَّ الْعِزَّةَ لِلَّهِ جَمِيعًا (Yunus 10:65). Reading straight through could sound as if "power belongs to Allah" is what the disbelievers said. The stop separates the two.

Some South Asian mushafs use a different set of marks, such as ط and ز. If your mushaf looks different, check its key, usually printed at the back.

What happens to the last letter when you stop

• A single vowel (fatha, kasrah, dammah) becomes a sukoon: الْعَالَمِينَ → al-'ālamīn.
• Fathatayn becomes a two-count alif: عَلِيمًا → 'alīmā. Kasratayn and dammatayn just become sukoon: عَلِيمٌ → 'alīm.
• Ta marbutah (ة) becomes a ha with sukoon: الْجَنَّةَ → al-jannah.
• A madd before the last letter becomes madd 'arid, which you may hold for 2, 4 or 6 counts. See the madd guide.
• A qalqalah letter at the end gets its stronger bounce, as in الْفَلَقْ. See qalqalah.

Advanced students also learn rawm (pronouncing a faint part of the final vowel) and ishmam (rounding the lips silently after a final dammah). These are optional refinements that a teacher will introduce later.

Starting again (ibtida')

Where you restart matters as much as where you stop. Always start from a word that makes sense on its own. If you had to stop in the middle of a connected phrase, go back to the start of that phrase rather than picking up from the next word.

Sakt: the silent pause in Hafs

A sakt is a very short stop without taking a breath. In the recitation of Hafs there are four places where it is required, each marked with a small س:

• عِوَجًا ۜ قَيِّمًا (al-Kahf 18:1-2)
• مِنْ مَرْقَدِنَا ۜ هَٰذَا (Ya-Sin 36:52)
• وَقِيلَ مَنْ ۜ رَاقٍ (al-Qiyamah 75:27)
• كَلَّا بَلْ ۜ رَانَ (al-Mutaffifin 83:14)

Practical tips

• Before reading a long verse, glance ahead for the stop marks so you can plan your breath.
• If you run out of breath in a bad place, stop, breathe, then go back a few words and restart.
• When leading prayer, stopping at the ends of verses is the Sunnah and the safest choice.
• Do not stop in the middle of a word or between a word and the word it describes.

Waqf is covered throughout our tajweed classes and is a big part of the tafseer course, because knowing the meaning makes the right stops obvious.