Tajweed Colours Explained: What Each Colour Means (with Chart)

Open a colour-coded Quran and some letters are printed in red, blue, green or grey. The colours are not decoration. Each one marks a rule of tajwīd, the way the Quran is recited: where to stretch a vowel, where to hum through the nose, where a letter bounces or is not pronounced at all.

This guide goes through each colour used in Quran Surfer's Tajweed view, what rule it marks and how to read it, with examples from short surahs you probably already know.

What tajweed is

Tajwīd means "making better". It is the set of rules for pronouncing the Quran the way it was recited by the Prophet ﷺ and passed down from teacher to student: each letter from its proper place in the mouth or throat, with its proper qualities and length. Allah says:

أَوۡ زِدۡ عَلَيۡهِ وَرَتِّلِ ٱلۡقُرۡءَانَ تَرۡتِيلًا

Or add to it, and recite the Qur'ān with measured recitation. (73:4)

Nobody should be put off reading because their tajweed is not perfect yet. ʿĀʾishah reported that the Prophet ﷺ said that the one who is skilled in the Quran will be with the noble, righteous scribes (the angels), and the one who reads it and stumbles over it, finding it hard, will have two rewards (Sahih al-Bukhari 4937; Sahih Muslim 798).

Colours can't replace a teacher, because tajweed is learned by listening and being corrected. But they are a good reminder, on the page, of where a rule applies.

How to turn the colours on

In the Quran reader, tap the button at the top that shows your current script and translation (for example "Uthmani, English"). Choose the Uthmani script and switch on Tajweed colours. The colours are only available with the Uthmani script, because they come with that text. If you learned to read in the IndoPak script, this guide to the differences between the two scripts will help you find your way around the Uthmani marks.

All the coloured examples on this page use the same colours as the reader. In dark mode, both use lighter shades so they stay readable.

A quick key

Colour	Rule	What to do
Grey	Silent letters	Don't pronounce it
Blue (four shades)	Madd, lengthening	Stretch the vowel for 2 to 6 counts
Orange	Ghunnah	Hum through the nose for 2 counts
Red	Qalqalah	Let the letter "bounce"
Purple	Ikhfāʾ	Hide the n sound with a nasal hum
Pink	Ikhfāʾ shafawī	Hide the m sound before bāʾ
Green (three shades)	Idghām	Merge the n or m into the next letter
Sky blue	Iqlāb	Turn the n sound into an m

A count (ḥarakah) is roughly the time it takes to say one short vowel. Teachers often measure it by folding or unfolding a finger at an even pace.

Grey: letters you don't pronounce

Grey marks letters that are written but not read. You see three kinds most often:

• The connecting alif (hamzat al-waṣl, written ٱ). It is only pronounced when you start reading from that word. In the middle of a sentence you pass straight over it.
• The "sun letter" lām (al-lām al-shamsiyyah). In al- before certain letters, the l is not pronounced, and the next letter is doubled instead: you say ar-Raḥmān, not al-Raḥmān.
• Silent letters in the spelling, like the alif written after the plural ending -ū.

بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

In the Bismillāh (1:1), the grey alifs and the grey lāms of ar-Raḥmān and ar-Raḥīm are all silent.

إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَعَمِلُواْ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ

In 103:3, āmanū and ʿamilū end in a written alif that is not read.

Grey is also used for two less common kinds of merging, where a letter disappears into a similar letter after it (idghām mutajānisayn and mutaqāribayn).

Blue: madd, how long to stretch

Madd means stretching. The three long vowels ā, ī and ū (written with alif, yāʾ and wāw) are always held for two counts. In some places they are held longer, and the colour tells you which. The darker the blue in the light theme, the longer the stretch.

Light blue: 2 counts

The natural length of a long vowel, often where it's written as a small alif above the letter.

رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ

In al-ʿĀlamīn (1:2), the small alif after the ʿayn is light blue: hold it for two counts.

Medium blue: 2, 4 or 6 counts when you stop

When you stop at the end of a verse, the last letter loses its vowel. A long vowel just before it may then be stretched for 2, 4 or 6 counts. This is called madd ʿāriḍ lil-sukūn. The same colour marks the softer vowels aw and ay before a stop (madd al-līn). Pick one length and keep to it throughout your reading.

In the last example, the ī in al-ʿĀlamīn is this shade. Other examples you'll know are ar-Raḥīm in the Bismillāh, and the endings of Surah Al-Fil:

فَجَعَلَهُمْ كَعَصْفٍ مَّأْكُولِۭ

Dark blue: 4 or 5 counts before a hamzah

When a long vowel is followed by a hamzah (ء), it is stretched for 4 or 5 counts. The hamzah can be in the same word (madd muttaṣil), as in jāʾa:

إِذَا جَآءَ نَصْرُ ٱللَّهِ وَٱلْفَتْحُ

When the victory of Allāh has come and the conquest, (110:1)

Or it can be at the start of the next word (madd munfaṣil), as in yadā Abī:

تَبَّتْ يَدَآ أَبِى لَهَبٍ وَتَبَّ

May the hands of Abū Lahab be ruined, and ruined is he. (111:1)

Tajweed books name these two separately, because the first is required and the second is allowed to be shorter in some ways of reciting. In the common recitation of Ḥafṣ, both are usually read at 4 or 5 counts, so the reader colours them alike.

Darkest blue: 6 counts

The longest madd, madd lāzim, is held for a full 6 counts. It comes where a long vowel is followed by a letter that has no vowel at all, usually a doubled letter. The best-known example is the last word of Al-Fatihah:

غَيْرِ ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا ٱلضَّآلِّينَ

Waḍ-ḍāāāāāllīn (1:7): the alif before the doubled lām is held for six counts. The same length is used in the separate letters that open some surahs, like Alif Lām Mīm at the start of Al-Baqarah, where Lām and Mīm are each stretched for six:

الٓمٓ

Orange: ghunnah, the nasal hum

Ghunnah is a humming sound made through the nose. Orange marks a doubled nūn (نّ) or doubled mīm (مّ), which always carry a ghunnah of two counts.

إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ لَفِى خُسْرٍ

Indeed, mankind is in loss, (103:2)

The nn of inna is held with a hum, not clipped short. Try holding your nose while you say it: if the sound stops, you're making the ghunnah.

Red: qalqalah, the bounce

Five letters, ق ط ب ج د (remembered as quṭbu jad), are pronounced with a slight echo or bounce when they have no vowel. This is qalqalah. The bounce is strongest when you stop on the letter at the end of a verse.

Surah Al-Ikhlas is full of it:

قُلْ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ

لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ

When you stop on aḥad, the d bounces: aḥad(e), without turning it into a full vowel. In 112:3, yalid and yūlad both bounce on the d.

The rules of nūn and mīm without a vowel

The remaining colours all deal with one situation: a nūn without a vowel (نْ), or tanwīn, the doubled vowel ending -an, -in, -un, which ends in an n sound. What you do with that n depends on the letter that comes next. Mīm without a vowel (مْ) has similar rules of its own.

If the next letter is one of the six throat letters (ء ه ع ح غ خ), the n is pronounced clearly. This is iẓhār, and it isn't coloured.

Purple: ikhfāʾ, hiding the n

Before fifteen of the letters, the n is "hidden": you don't fully pronounce it, but move towards the next letter while humming through the nose for two counts.

مِن شَرِّ مَا خَلَقَ

In min sharri (113:2), the n in min is hidden into the sh. The tongue does not press firmly for the n.

Pink: ikhfāʾ shafawī, hiding the m

The same idea applies to a mīm without a vowel before bāʾ (ب). The lips come together lightly, with a hum, and go straight into the b.

تَرْمِيهِم بِحِجَارَةٍ مِّن سِجِّيلٍ

Striking them with stones of hard clay, (105:4)

This one verse has four colours: tarmīhim bi- (pink), ḥijāratin min (green), min sijjīl (purple), and the ī of sijjīl stretched at the stop (medium blue).

Green: idghām, merging

Idghām means merging: the n or m disappears into the letter after it. There are three shades.

Dark green, merging with a hum. Before four letters, ي ن م و, the n merges into the next letter with a ghunnah of two counts. In the last example, ḥijāratin min is read ḥijāratim-min.

ٱلَّذِىٓ أَطْعَمَهُم مِّن جُوعٍ وَءَامَنَهُم مِّنْ خَوْفِۭ

Who has fed them, [saving them] from hunger and made them safe, [saving them] from fear. (106:4)

Here jūʿin wa- becomes jūʿiw-wa-.

Bright green, merging without a hum. Before ل and ر, the n merges completely and there is no hum:

وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُۥ كُفُوًا أَحَدُۢ

Wa lam yakun lahū (112:4) is read wa lam yakul-lahū.

Light green, merging two mīms. A mīm without a vowel followed by another mīm merges into it with a hum. In 106:4 above, aṭʿamahum min and āmanahum min are both read with one long, humming m.

Sky blue: iqlāb, n becomes m

Before bāʾ (ب), the n sound turns into an m, pronounced with a light hum as in ikhfāʾ shafawī. The mushaf shows this with a small mīm above the letter.

وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمُۢ بِمَا كَانُواْ يَكْذِبُونَ

In 2:10, alīmun bimā is read alīmum-bimā.

Colours differ between mushafs

There is no single standard. If you learned from a printed colour-coded mushaf, its colours may not match the ones here, and some mushafs mark more or fewer rules. Quran Surfer's colours follow the tajweed data published by quran.com. The rules themselves are the same everywhere; only the colours change.

Practise with the colours

The best way to learn is to listen and repeat. In the reader, switch on Tajweed colours and play the recitation, and watch for each colour as the reciter reaches it. Short surahs are a good place to start: try Al-Ikhlas for qalqalah, Al-Fil for nūn rules and Quraysh for idghām.

Once the colours become familiar, switch them off now and then, and see if you can still hear where each rule falls.

Sources

• The Quran, with the Saheeh International translation; Tajweed markup from the quran.com API
• Sahih al-Bukhari 4937 and Sahih Muslim 798, on the one who stumbles in reading having two rewards
• The classical tajweed poems Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl by al-Jamzūrī and al-Muqaddimah al-Jazariyyah by Ibn al-Jazarī, on which most modern tajweed courses are based

This guide is an introduction to what the colours mean, not a full course in tajweed. To learn to recite correctly, read with a qualified teacher who can listen and correct you.