Iqlab (noon sakina and tanween rules) iqlab rule

Iqlab is an Arabic word that means Alternation or switching. And in Tajweed, Iqlab is one of the Tajweed rules. Iqlab rule means that Noon Sakinah or Tanween is switched to Meem sakinah in its pronunciation. Lets talk about the Iqlab and its conditions, pronunciation, and examples for it.

What is Iqlab?

As we mentioned, Iqlab is a rule applied to Noon Sakinah (static Noon) or Tanween (Nunation), and make it pronounced as Meem Sakinah with Ghunna, and Ghunna is a sound comes out of the gill, and the gill is the far nose inside.

Conditions of Iqlab:

Iqlab is applied on Noon sakinah (Static Noon) or tanween ( Nunation) only if it is followed by “Baa” letter, either they come in the same word or the Noon letter or the Tanween comes in the end of a word and the Baa letter comes at the beginning of the next word. So, here, the Noon or Tanween is pronounced as a Meem Sakinah with Ghunna.

How to pronounce Iqlab?

During recitation of Quran, when your eyes fell on a Noon letter or Tanween followed by Baa letter, you should remember that you will not pronounce them, but you will alternate their pronunciation to the sound of Meem Sakinah with Ghunna. And you should not close your lips completely and stress them during pronunciation of this Meem, but you should reduce its pronunciation by making a gap between the lips to give the sound of Ghunna.

Examples of Iqlab in Quran:

(An*bu’ony), (Y’umen*-berabeh), (Zawgen*-bahiij), (Sameeon*-basir). As you can see in all the previous words, Noon is followed by Baa, either in the same word or Noon came at the end of a word and Baa came at the beginning of the next word. where “n” is the Noon Sakina or Tanween. And (*) is the place of Iqlab where the Noon is pronounced as Meem with Ghunna. So they pronounced as following; (Ambuony), (Y’umem-berabeh), (Zawgem-bahiij), (Sameeom-basira). Where (m) is the sound of the Noon, and it is pronounced with Ghunna.

Why Iqlab is necessary in recitation:

Iqlab is applied because if you pronounce Noon then pronounce Baa after it, there would be a little difficulty in pronunciation because of the distance of their exits in the mouth, so Noon is pronounced as Meem, because Meem and Baa are proximate in their exits. And also Meem sound is proximate to Noon sound in Ghunna. We should mention here that in English, French and Latin languages, the N and B when comes beside each others, are pronounced as M.

Noon of assertion and Iqlab:

There are two kinds of Noon of assertion, light Noon of assertion and heavy Noon of assertion. The light Noon of assertion is the one which Iqlab is applied to. And it came in Quran followed by Baa letter for only once, and therefore, Iqlab is applied in its pronunciation. in the verse { Lnasfan*-bennasya}, where n is the light Noon of assertion and it is followed by Baa letter in the beginning of the next word, and* is the place of Iqlab. So, it is pronounced {Lnasfam-bennasya}with the sound of Ghunna.