Qālūn ʿan Nāfiʿ¶

ʿĪsā ibn Mīnā al-Madanī, Abū Mūsā, known as Qālūn (120–220 AH), client of the Banū Zuhrah, foremost rāwī of Nāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Madanī (70–169 AH), imām of recitation in Madinah. Nāfiʿ nicknamed him "Qālūn" — "good/excellent" in the Roman tongue — for the quality of his recitation. His reading is widely followed in parts of North Africa and the Middle East (notably Libya and Tunisia). See the imām's overview.

Hallmarks at a Glance (مُمَيِّزات الرِّواية)¶

The rules that most set Qālūn apart from Ḥafṣ — what a listener notices first. Each links to its full treatment below.

1. Ṣilat mīm al-jamʿ — his most recognizable trait: the plural mīm (هُمْ / كُمْ) may be connected with a wāw before any voweled letter (عَلَيْهِمُو) — a free choice (takhyīr) between ṣilah and sukūn.
2. Madd munfaṣil: 2 or 4 — qaṣr or tawassuṭ, where Ḥafṣ reads 4–5.
3. Tashīl with idkhāl — in double-hamzah words the second hamzah is softened and a separating alif inserted.
4. وَهْوَ، فَهْوَ — sākin hāʾ — هُوَ / هِيَ lose their vowel after وَ، فَ، لَ.
5. Pure fatḥ — no imālah — except the single word هَارٍ.
6. Nāfiʿ's open yāʾāt al-iḍāfah — many first-person yāʾs opened (مَعِيَ، إِنِّيَ) where Ḥafṣ has sukūn.

Uṣūl¶

Istiʿādhah (الاسْتِعاذة)¶

• Rule: Qālūn recites the standard istiʿādhah أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ aloud before beginning recitation (as Ḥafṣ).
• Explanation: Said openly at the start of recitation; the wording follows what is transmitted, without addition.
• Example: أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ before al-Fātiḥah.
• Matn: line 95

Basmalah between sūrahs (البَسْمَلة بَين السُّورَتَين)¶

• Rule: Qālūn recites the basmalah between every two sūrahs (as Ḥafṣ).
• Explanation: He is in the group that always basmalates between sūrahs (with Ibn Kathīr, ʿĀṣim, al-Kisāʾī) — so here he matches the reading you already know from Ḥafṣ. The basmalah attaches to the start of the following sūrah; before al-Tawbah there is none, and the al-Anfāl→al-Tawbah junction takes the usual waqf/sakt/waṣl.
• Example: … الرَّحِيمِ ۝ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ ۝ قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ النَّاسِ.
• Matn: line 100

Madd muttaṣil (المَدّ المُتَّصِل)¶

• Rule: A long vowel followed by a hamzah within the same word is prolonged to tawassuṭ — 4 ḥarakāt (same length as Ḥafṣ).
• Explanation: There is no qaṣr option in the muttaṣil; Qālūn lengthens it to four counts.
• Example: جَاءَ, السَّمَاءِ, سُوءَ.
• Matn: line 168

Madd munfaṣil (qaṣr or tawassuṭ) (المَدّ المُنفَصِل)¶

• Rule: A long vowel at the end of a word when the next word begins with hamzah is read with two modes (khulf): qaṣr (2) or tawassuṭ (4) ḥarakāt.
• Explanation: This is Qālūn's distinctive madd. Ḥafṣ fixes the munfaṣil at 4; Qālūn additionally allows the qaṣr (2), an option he shares — at the short end — with Ibn Kathīr.
• Example: بِمَا أُنزِلَ, قُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ, يَا أَيُّهَا.
• Matn: line 169

Madd lāzim (المَدّ اللازِم)¶

• Rule: A long vowel before an original sukūn or a shaddah is prolonged 6 ḥarakāt (as all reciters).
• Explanation: The obligatory madd, fixed at six counts.
• Example: الضَّالِّينَ, الْحَاقَّةُ, the لَام/مِيم of الم.
• Matn: line 176

Madd al-badal (مَدّ البَدَل)¶

• Rule: A long vowel after a hamzah is read as the natural madd, 2 ḥarakāt (as Ḥafṣ).
• Explanation: Qālūn does not share Warsh's lengthening of the badal; he keeps it at the ordinary two counts.
• Example: آمَنَ, أُوتِيَ, إِيمَانًا.
• Matn: line 171

Madd al-ʿiwaḍ (مَدّ العِوَض)¶

• Rule: When stopping on a word ending in tanwīn fatḥah (ـً), the tanwīn becomes a long /aa/ of 2 ḥarakāt.
• Explanation: The compensatory madd that replaces the dropped tanwīn at waqf — universal.
• Example: stopping on كِتَابًا → كِتَابَا.
• Matn: line 176

Madd in the opening letters (ḥurūf muqaṭṭaʿāt) (مَدّ الحُروف المُقَطَّعة)¶

• Rule: Three-letter-spelled openers (نُون، مِيم، صَاد، لَام، كَاف، سِين، قَاف) take 6 ḥarakāt; two-letter-spelled ones (طَا، هَا، يَا، حَا، رَا) take 2; أَلِفْ has no madd; عَيْن is 4 or 6 (6 preferred). Qālūn reads all of these as Ḥafṣ — with pure fatḥ (no taqlīl).
• Explanation: Where the spelled letter holds a madd letter before a sukūn it lengthens to six; otherwise it stays short. Unlike Warsh, Qālūn applies no inclination to the alif-bearing openers.
• Example: الم (لَام، مِيم at 6), طٰه (طَا، هَا at 2, open), كهيعص (عَيْن at 4 or 6).
• Matn: lines 177–178

Madd al-ṣilah (hāʾ al-kināyah) (مَدّ الصِّلة)¶

• Rule: Qālūn connects the third-person pronoun هـ with a madd (ṣilah) when it falls between two voweled letters: long /uu/ after ḍammah, long /ee/ after kasrah. Before a hamzat qaṭʿ the ṣilah follows his munfaṣil — qaṣr (2) or tawassuṭ (4).
• Explanation: No ṣilah is made before a sākin. The general ṣilah is shared with Ḥafṣ; the only difference is that Qālūn's ṣilah-before-hamzah carries his two-way munfaṣil length.
• Example: إِنَّهُ كَانَ (إِنَّهُو), بِهِ ۦ; before a hamzah مَالَهُ ۥ أَخْلَدَهُ (2 or 4).
• Matn: line 158

Hāʾ al-kināyah — the special "shortened-hāʾ" words (هاء الكِناية)¶

• Rule: In the fixed set of apocopated-verb words يُؤَدِّهِ, نُؤْتِهِ, نُوَلِّهِ, نُصْلِهِ, فَأَلْقِهِ, يَتَّقِهِ (and يَأْتِهِ in Ṭāhā), Qālūn reads the hāʾ with khulf — qaṣr or ṣilah. يَرْضَهُ and يَرَهُ are read with the short hāʾ.
• Explanation: The matn gives Qālūn qaṣr "bi-khulf" in these words, i.e. either the short hāʾ or the connected one. فِيهِ مُهَانًا (al-Furqān 69) he reads with qaṣr (the ṣilah there is for Ibn Kathīr and Ḥafṣ).
• Example: نُؤْتِهِ مِنْهَا — read short, or with the connecting /ee/.
• Matn: lines 160–163

Mīm al-jamʿ (ṣilah bi-takhyīr) (مِيم الجَمْع)¶

• Rule: Qālūn may connect the plural mīm (هُمْ / كُمْ) with a wāw-madd (ṣilah) when it is followed by a voweled letter — a free choice (takhyīr: ṣilah or sukūn).
• Explanation: This optional ṣilah distinguishes him from Ḥafṣ (who keeps the mīm short). Ibn Kathīr connects it always; Qālūn has the two-way choice; before a sākin the mīm simply keeps its short ḍammah.
• Example: عَلَيْهِمُ ۥ القِتَالُ (ṣilah: عَلَيْهِمُو) — or with sukūn عَلَيْهِمْ.
• Matn: lines 111–112

Imālah / taqlīl (الإمالة والتَّقْليل)¶

• Rule: Qālūn reads with pure fatḥ almost everywhere — no general imālah or taqlīl — with one exception: he gives imālah kubrā to the alif of هَارٍ (al-Tawbah 9:109, جُرُفٍ هَارٍ). This is his only full imālah in the whole Qurʾān (the parallel to Warsh's single kubrā on the هَا of طٰه).
• Explanation: Apart from هَارٍ he matches Ḥafṣ — the fatḥah and its alif stay fully open. (The wide inclination of dhawāt al-yāʾ and verse-ends belongs to Warsh, Ḥamzah, and al-Kisāʾī, not Qālūn.)
• Example: هَارٍ (imālah kubrā); but هُدًى, الْهَوَى, ذِكْرَى all open.
• Matn: line 323 (هَارٍ); al-Wāfī confirms it as Qālūn's sole kubrā.

Hamzah: two hamzahs in one word (الهَمْزَتان في كَلِمة)¶

• Rule: When two hamzahs open one word, Qālūn softens the second hamzah (tashīl — a sound between hamzah and its vowel) and inserts an alif between the two.
• Explanation: Tashīl releases the glottal closure before it completes. There is a list of words where he does not insert the alif, and one word with two wajhs (tashīl or alif).
• Example: أَأَنذَرْتَهُمْ → second hamzah softened, alif inserted; أَئِنَّكُمْ, أَؤُنزِلَ.
• Matn: line 183

Hamzah: two hamzahs from two words — same vowel (الهَمْزَتان في كَلِمَتَين)¶

• Rule: When a word ends in hamzah and the next begins with a hamzah of the same vowel: fatḥ+fatḥ → Qālūn drops the first; kasr+kasr → first like yāʾ (imperfect hamzah); ḍamm+ḍamm → first like wāw.
• Explanation: Facilitating one of two adjacent hamzahs avoids two glottal stops. Special case بِالسُّوءِ إِلَّا (Yūsuf 53): the first hamzah is changed and merged (idghām), with khilāf.
• Example: جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا (drops first), مِنَ السَّمَاءِ إِنَّ (first like yāʾ), أَوْلِيَاءُ أُولَئِكَ (first like wāw).
• Matn: lines 202–204

Hamzah: two hamzahs from two words — different vowels (الهَمْزَتان في كَلِمَتَين)¶

• Rule: When the two hamzahs carry different vowels, Qālūn facilitates the second: fatḥ+ḍamm and fatḥ+kasr → tashīl; ḍamm+fatḥ → ibdāl to wāw; kasr+fatḥ → ibdāl to yāʾ; ḍamm+kasr → two wajhs.
• Explanation: The second hamzah is softened or substituted by the neighbouring vowels. When a madd letter precedes a changed hamzah, qaṣr of that madd is permissible though keeping the madd is preferred (أَعْدَل).
• Example: جَاءَ أُمَّةً (fatḥ+ḍamm), تَفِيءَ إِلَى (fatḥ+kasr), نَشَاءُ أَصَبْنَا (→ wāw), السَّمَاءِ أَوِ (→ yāʾ).
• Matn: lines 209–211

Idghām ṣaghīr and close-makhraj letters (الإدْغام الصَّغير)¶

• Rule: In the idghām of إذ، قد، and the feminine tāʾ, Qālūn reads iẓhār (clear) in all the disputed letters — as Ḥafṣ. With the Ḥaramiyy group (Nāfiʿ + Ibn Kathīr) he assimilates the ṣād of Maryam's opening (كٓهٰيٰعٓصٓ ۝ ذِكْرُ) into the following ذ. His one further point is khulf (idghām or iẓhār) in يُعَذِّبُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ (al-Baqarah 284).
• Explanation: Where Warsh assimilates the tāʾ/قد into the close-makhraj letters, Qālūn keeps them clear — except the Ḥaramiyy صٓ idghām and the يُعَذِّبْ khulf (the bāʾ assimilated into the following mīm, or clear).
• Example: كٓهٰيٰعٓصٓ ۝ ذِكْرُ (ṣād → ذ); قَد ظَلَمُوا kept clear; يُعَذِّبُ مَن يَشَاءُ — idghām of the bāʾ or clear.
• Matn: lines 282–285

Naql (آلْآنَ, رِدْءًا) (النَّقْل)¶

• Rule: Qālūn applies naql (transferring the hamzah's vowel onto a preceding sākin and dropping the hamzah) in آلْآنَ (Yūnus 51, 91) and رِدْءًا (al-Qaṣaṣ 34) — the two places named for Nāfiʿ — not as a general rule (that is Warsh's).
• Explanation: In آلْآنَ the vowel moves onto the lām; Qālūn (with Abū ʿAmr) also gives the wāw of آلْآنَ a hamzah in his naql at the start and in joining.
• Example: آلْآنَ وَقَدْ → the hamzah's fatḥah carried onto the lām; رِدْءًا → رِدَا.
• Matn: lines 229–234

Waqf ʿalā marsūm al-khaṭṭ (stopping on the written form) (الوَقْف على مَرْسوم الخَطّ)¶

• Rule: Qālūn (with Nāfiʿ) stops according to the rasm — the ʿUthmānī spelling. Where a feminine tāʾ is written open (رَحْمَت, نِعْمَت, اِمْرَأَت, شَجَرَت), he stops on it with tāʾ (as Ḥafṣ).
• Explanation: Nāfiʿ is named among those who follow the written form at waqf (with the Kūfīs and Abū ʿAmr); words written with tāʾ are stopped with tāʾ, those with hāʾ with hāʾ.
• Example: stopping on رَحْمَتَ اللَّهِ → رَحْمَت (with tāʾ).
• Matn: lines 376–378

هُوَ / هِيَ after a connective particle (sukūn)¶

• Rule: After the particles وَ, فَ, لَ, Qālūn reads هُوَ and هِيَ with sukūn on the hāʾ: وَهْوَ, فَهْوَ, لَهْوَ, وَهْيَ, فَهْيَ, لَهْيَ — wherever they occur.
• Explanation: The hāʾ loses its vowel after the particle (Ḥafṣ keeps it voweled: وَهُوَ). Only three readers do this — Qālūn, Abū ʿAmr, and al-Kisāʾī (matn rumūz بَارِداً / حَلَا / رَاضِياً); Warsh and the rest keep the full هُوَ.
• Example: وَهْوَ الْعَزِيزُ, فَهْيَ كَالْحِجَارَةِ.
• Matn: line 449

Consistent changes — added hamzah and passive ishmām (تَغْييرات مُطَّرِدة)¶

• The النَّبِيء family — read with a hamzah: Qālūn (with all of Nāfiʿ) reads the النَّبِيّ family with a hamzah wherever it occurs — النَّبِيء, الأَنْبِئَاء, النَّبِيئِينَ/النَّبِيئُونَ, النُّبُوءة — and likewise reads البَرِيّة (al-Bayyinah 98:6, 7) as البَرِيئَة. This "adding of the hamzah" is one of Nāfiʿ's most identifiable signatures (other readers use a yāʾ/shaddah).
• Ishmām of the passive سِيءَ / سِيئَتْ: Qālūn gives the سِ of سِيءَ (Hūd 77; al-ʿAnkabūt 33) and سِيئَتْ (al-Mulk 67:27) ishmām — a hint of ḍammah blended into the kasrah, echoing the original سُوءَ — where Ḥafṣ reads a pure kasrah (shared with Ibn ʿĀmir, Shuʿbah, al-Kisāʾī).
• Matn: the النَّبِيء/البَرِيئَة hamz is in the farsh; passive ishmām at line 448.

Yāʾ al-iḍāfah and yāʾāt al-zawāʾid (ياء الإضافة وياءات الزَّوائِد)¶

• Rule: Nāfiʿ opens (fatḥ) a large set of the yāʾāt al-iḍāfah (مَعِيَ, بَيْتِيَ, إِنِّيَ, لِيَ) where the Ḥafṣ baseline reads them sākin, and affirms (ithbāt) a set of the yāʾāt al-zawāʾid. Qālūn-specific points: he reads مَحْيَايَ with khulf (fatḥ/iskān); among the zawāʾid Qālūn does not affirm دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ / دَعَانِ (al-Baqarah 186), and (unlike Warsh) does not have نَذِيرِي.
• Explanation: Nāfiʿ is known for his wide fatḥ of the iḍāfah-yāʾ. The bāb is an extensive word-by-word list (poem 387–441); Qālūn and Warsh agree on the bulk and split on the handful named above and on Warsh's page. (The named items are decoded from the matn; the complete per-word roster is in the matn appendix.)
• Example: إِنِّيَ أَعْلَمُ (yāʾ opened); مَحْيَايَ (khulf); دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ — yāʾ not affirmed.
• Matn: lines 387–441

Farsh¶

Qālūn's distinctive farsh readings, in muṣḥaf order (sorted by matn line). Each row gives the verse, Ḥafṣ's reading for contrast, Qālūn's own reading, a Qurʾānic example, and the matn line. Rulings where Qālūn reads the same form as Ḥafṣ (the base/majority) are omitted; rows marked (awaiting confirmation) are decoded from the matn but not yet cross-checked against a printed sharḥ.