Warsh ʿan Nāfiʿ¶

ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Miṣrī, Abū Saʿīd, known as Warsh (110–197 AH), client of the Qurashites, the second great rāwī of Nāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Madanī (70–169 AH), imām of recitation in Madinah. Nāfiʿ nicknamed him "Warsh" for the brightness of his complexion. In the Shāṭibiyyah his reading is transmitted via the ṭarīq of al-Azraq (Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf ibn ʿAmr al-Azraq, from Warsh). His reading is the prevailing recitation across most of North and West Africa. See the imām's overview.

Uṣūl¶

Istiʿādhah (الاسْتِعاذة)¶

• Rule: Warsh recites the standard istiʿādhah أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ aloud before beginning recitation (as Ḥafṣ).
• Explanation: It is said openly at the start of recitation; the shorter wording of al-Naḥl is the basis, and one may not lengthen it beyond what is transmitted.
• Example: أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ before al-Fātiḥah.
• Matn: line 95

Basmalah between sūrahs (البَسْمَلة بَين السُّورَتَين)¶

• Rule: Between two sūrahs Warsh has three permitted ways: (1) basmalah, (2) sakt (a brief silent pause, no basmalah), or (3) waṣl (joining the end of one sūrah to the start of the next without basmalah).
• Explanation: This three-way option is shared with Abū ʿAmr and Ibn ʿĀmir (Ḥamzah joins only). At the start of any sūrah other than al-Tawbah the basmalah is required; before al-Tawbah there is no basmalah. The basmalah, when said, attaches to the following sūrah, never to the end of the previous one.
• Example: end of al-Falaq → (1) … الرَّحِيمِ ۝ قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ النَّاسِ, or (2) a silent pause then قُلْ أَعُوذُ, or (3) joined directly.
• Matn: line 100

Madd muttaṣil (المَدّ المُتَّصِل)¶

• Rule: A long vowel followed by a hamzah within the same word is prolonged to ṭūl — 6 ḥarakāt.
• Explanation: Warsh gives the muttaṣil its fullest length; there is no qaṣr or tawassuṭ option for him here (contrast Ḥafṣ at 4).
• Example: جَاءَ, السَّمَاءِ, سُوءَ, سِيءَ.
• Matn: line 168

Madd munfaṣil (المَدّ المُنفَصِل)¶

• Rule: A long vowel at the end of a word when the next word begins with hamzah is prolonged to ṭūl — 6 ḥarakāt.
• Explanation: Unlike Qālūn (qaṣr/tawassuṭ) and Ḥafṣ (4), Warsh fixes the munfaṣil at full length, matching his muttaṣil.
• Example: بِمَا أُنزِلَ, قُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ, يَا أَيُّهَا.
• Matn: line 169

Madd lāzim (المَدّ اللازِم)¶

• Rule: A long vowel before an original (structural) sukūn or a shaddah is prolonged 6 ḥarakāt.
• Explanation: The obligatory madd; its length is fixed at six for all reciters, Warsh included.
• Example: الضَّالِّينَ, الْحَاقَّةُ, and the مِيم/صَاد/لَام of the sūrah-openings (الم, ص).
• Matn: line 176

Madd al-badal (مَدّ البَدَل)¶

• Rule: A long vowel (alif, wāw, or yāʾ) that comes after a hamzah — Warsh reads it with three lengths: qaṣr (2), tawassuṭ (4), or ṭūl (6) ḥarakāt. Qaṣr is the matn's base; ṭūl is narrated for him and tawassuṭ is also transmitted, and 4 is the length most commonly taught.
• Explanation: Lengthening the badal is one of Warsh's signature features — the other reciters, Qālūn included, keep it at its natural 2. It applies whether the madd after the hamzah is original (آمَنَ) or arose from softening a second hamzah into a madd letter (أُوتِيَ, إِيمَان). Excluded (read short, 2 only): the yāʾ of إِسْرَائِيل; a madd after a sound sākin such as قُرْآن, مَسْئُولًا; and the يُؤَاخِذ family (لَا يُؤَاخِذُكُمْ, لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَا), where the alif is a lazim ibdāl of an original fāʾ-hamzah, not a true badal — read short by ittifāq (matn 174). (عَادًا الأُولَى and آلْآنَ, by contrast, are not firm exceptions — the dominant reading gives them the full three badal lengths.)
• Example: آمَنَ, أُوتِيَ, إِيمَانًا, هَؤُلَاءِ, آلِهَة.
• Matn: lines 171–172

Tarbīʿ — interlocking of badal with fatḥ / taqlīl (التَّرْبيع)¶

• Rule: When a word contains both a candidate for taqlīl (jaʿl) and a madd al-badal, the two choices lock together into exactly four readings (tarbīʿ): fatḥ + qaṣr (2), fatḥ + ṭūl (6), taqlīl + tawassuṭ (4), and taqlīl + ṭūl (6).
• Explanation: This is why "4" is associated with Warsh's badal in practice — tawassuṭ pairs with taqlīl. With pure fatḥ the badal is 2 or 6; with taqlīl it is 4 or 6. The same four-way interlock applies when madd al-līn and madd al-badal meet in one word.
• Example: رَأَى الْكَوْكَبَ and the like — read in the four combinations above.
• Matn: lines 171–172

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 — a universal rule, Warsh as the rest.
• Example: stopping on كِتَابًا → كِتَابَا.
• Matn: line 176

Madd al-līn (al-līn al-hamzī) (مَدّ اللِّين)¶

• Rule: When a līn letter — a sākin wāw or yāʾ preceded by a fatḥah — is followed by a hamzah in the same word, Warsh lengthens it with two modes: tawassuṭ (4) or ṭūl (6) ḥarakāt (in both waṣl and waqf).
• Explanation: This is Warsh's distinctive madd al-līn; the other reciters give it no extra length. The ordinary līn at a pause — خَوْف, الصَّيْف, with no following hamzah — is lengthened by all reciters alike when stopping, and is not special to Warsh. (The matn's wording بِطُولٍ وَقَصْرٍ uses qaṣr for the tawassuṭ of 4 — al-Wāfī states explicitly "the intended meaning of qaṣr here is tawassuṭ" — so the two lengths are 4 and 6, not 2 and 6.)
• Example: شَيْء, السَّوْء, سَوْءَة, كَهَيْئَةِ, الْمَوْؤُودَة.
• Matn: lines 179–180

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 (madd lāzim); two-letter-spelled ones (طَا، هَا، يَا، حَا، رَا) take 2; أَلِفْ has no madd; عَيْن (in كهيعص, حم عسق) is 4 or 6, 6 preferred. Warsh inclines the alif-bearing openers — the رَا of الٓر and the يَا/طَا/حَا — with taqlīl (bayna bayna); but the هَا of طٰه he reads with full imālah kubrā — his single instance of kubrā (see Imālah and taqlīl).
• Explanation: Where the spelled letter holds a madd letter before a sukūn it lengthens to six; where not, it stays short. Most inclinable openers take taqlīl; the هَا of طٰه alone is full imālah for Warsh.
• Example: الم (لَام، مِيم at 6), طٰه (طَا with taqlīl, هَا with imālah kubrā), الٓر (رَا with taqlīl), كهيعص (عَيْن at 4 or 6).
• Matn: lines 177–178

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

• Rule: Warsh 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. When the letter after it is a hamzat qaṭʿ, the ṣilah is given ṭūl — 6 ḥarakāt (matching his munfaṣil).
• Explanation: No ṣilah is made when the hāʾ is followed by a sākin. The general ṣilah is shared across the readings; Warsh's distinctiveness is the full 6-count ṣilah before a hamzah.
• Example: إِنَّهُ كَانَ (إِنَّهُو), بِهِ ۦ; before a hamzah مَالَهُ ۥ أَخْلَدَهُ (ṣilah at 6).
• Matn: line 158

Hāʾ al-kināyah — the يُؤَدِّهِ (apocopated-verb) class (هاء الكِناية — يُؤَدِّهِ)¶

• Rule: Warsh reads يُؤَدِّهِ، نُؤْتِهِ، نُوَلِّهِ، نُصْلِهِ with ishbāʿ — the full ṣilah (the connecting yāʾ), like the majority of readers.
• Explanation: al-Wāfī places Warsh in the ishbāʿ group (with Ibn Kathīr, Ibn Dhakwān, Ḥafṣ, al-Kisāʾī). The sukūn reading of these words belongs to Ḥamzah, Shuʿbah, and Abū ʿAmr; Qālūn reads them with a short kasrah (qaṣr). Warsh does not give فِيهِ مُهَانًا (al-Furqān 69) the ṣilah-after-sukūn — that is Ibn Kathīr's and Ḥafṣ's.
• Example: يُؤَدِّهِۦٓ إِلَيْكَ (Q3:75) — with the connecting yāʾ.
• Matn: lines 160–161 (group resolved via al-Wāfī)
• Matn: lines 160–163

Mīm al-jamʿ (ṣilah only before a hamzah) (مِيم الجَمْع)¶

• Rule: Warsh keeps the plural mīm (هُمْ / كُمْ) short in ordinary contexts; he connects it with a wāw (ṣilah) only when the next word begins with a hamzat qaṭʿ, and then prolongs it to 6 ḥarakāt (ṭūl).
• Explanation: This distinguishes him from Qālūn (who has the general takhyīr) and Ibn Kathīr (ṣilah always). For Warsh the mīm-ṣilah surfaces solely at a following hamzah.
• Example: عَلَيْهِمُ ۥ أَأَنذَرْتَهُمْ (ṣilah at 6), لَهُمُ ۥ ءَامِنُوا; but ordinary عَلَيْهِمْ keeps the short mīm.
• Matn: lines 111–112

Imālah and taqlīl (الإمالة والتَّقْليل)¶

• Rule: Warsh's signature inclination is taqlīl (bayna bayna), which he applies to a wide class of alifs; he has one — and only one — instance of full imālah kubrā: the هَا of طٰه (Q20:1). The taqlīl falls on: (1) alifs of yāʾ-origin — dhawāt al-yāʾ, with khulf (fatḥ also allowed) — e.g. هُدَى, الْهَوَى; (2) the alif of taʾnīth on the scale فَعْلَى/فُعْلَى — e.g. ذِكْرَى, الْحُسْنَى; (3) the verse-ending alifs of the sūrahs whose fāṣilah rhymes in ـَى — e.g. al-Najm, al-Shams, al-Layl, al-Ḍuḥā; and (4) every alif before a word-final rāʾ carrying kasrah — e.g. الدَّار, النَّار, الْكُفَّار, الْأَبْرَار.
• Explanation: Taqlīl is Warsh's hallmark and the chief audible contrast with Qālūn's pure fatḥ. Five words are excluded from the dhawāt-al-yāʾ taqlīl and kept open: لَدَى, إِلَى, حَتَّى, عَلَى, مَا. In the general categories the full imālah kubrā belongs to Ḥamzah and al-Kisāʾī — Warsh's sole kubrā is the هَا of طٰه.
• Example: هُدًى (taqlīl bi-khulf), ذِكْرَى, الدَّار — all inclined towards the yāʾ; but عَلَى, إِلَى stay open.
• Two named words: التَّوْرَاة — Warsh reads it with taqlīl qawlan wāḥidan (no fatḥ wajh; matn 546 — Qālūn by contrast has khulf, fatḥ or taqlīl); and رَأَى — taqlīl of both the rāʾ and the following hamzah/alif, wherever it occurs.
• Matn: lines 291–324

Naql (transferring the hamzah's vowel) (النَّقْل)¶

• Rule: When a word ending in a sound sākin consonant is followed by a word beginning with a hamzat qaṭʿ, Warsh (in waṣl) transfers the vowel of the hamzah onto that sākin and drops the hamzah.
• Explanation: Naql is one of Warsh's most recognisable features (Qālūn applies it only in آلْآنَ of Yūnus). The former sākin now carries the moved vowel and the hamzah disappears. Nāfiʿ (both rāwīs) also reads آلْآنَ (Yūnus 51, 91) and رِدْءًا (al-Qaṣaṣ 34) with naql; Warsh additionally reads كِتَابِيَهْ (al-Ḥāqqah) with iskān of the hāʾ.
• Example: قَدْ أَفْلَحَ → قَدَ افْلَحَ; مَنْ آمَنَ → مَنَ آمَنَ; آلْآنَ (naql onto the lām); رِدْءًا → رِدَا (naql).
• Matn: lines 226–234

Ibdāl of the sākin hamzah (the isolated hamzah) (إبْدال الهَمْز الساكِن)¶

• Rule: Warsh changes a sākin hamzah that is the fāʾ of the verb into a pure madd letter of the genus of the preceding vowel (after fatḥah → alif, after ḍammah → wāw, after kasrah → yāʾ).
• Explanation: This produces a soft long vowel in place of the glottal stop. It is excluded for the إيواء family; the wāw is changed only when it falls open after a ḍammah (نحو مُؤَجَّلًا). Warsh also has fixed ibdāl in بِئْر, بِئْس, الذِّئْب, لِئَلَّا, النَّسِيء.
• Example: يُؤْمِنُونَ → يُومِنُونَ, الْبَأْس → الْبَاس, بِئْر → بِير.
• Matn: lines 214–215

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

• Rule: When two hamzahs open one word (the istifhām forms), Warsh facilitates the second hamzah — turning it, via the al-Azraq line, into a pure madd letter of its vowel's genus — without inserting an alif between the two.
• Explanation: Contrast Qālūn, who softens the second hamzah (tashīl) and separates the pair with an alif. There is a small set of words and one two-wajh case handled in the farsh.
• Example: أَأَنذَرْتَهُمْ, 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, Warsh works on the first of the pair: fatḥ+fatḥ → tashīl or ibdāl to a long alif (madd); kasr+kasr → first like yāʾ; ḍamm+ḍamm → first like wāw.
• Explanation: Facilitating one of two adjacent hamzahs avoids two consecutive glottal stops. Warsh and Qunbul characteristically give the changed first hamzah a full madd.
• Example: جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا, مِنَ السَّمَاءِ إِنَّ, أَوْلِيَاءُ أُولَئِكَ.
• Matn: lines 202–206

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

• Rule: When the two hamzahs carry different vowels, the second is facilitated: fatḥ+ḍamm and fatḥ+kasr → tashīl (between hamzah and the madd letter of its vowel); ḍamm+fatḥ → ibdāl to wāw; kasr+fatḥ → ibdāl to yāʾ.
• Explanation: Where the vowels differ, the second hamzah is softened or substituted by the neighbouring vowels. When a madd letter precedes the changed hamzah, qaṣr of that madd is permissible though the madd is the stronger choice.
• Example: جَاءَ أُمَّةً, تَفِيءَ إِلَى, نَشَاءُ أَصَبْنَا (→ wāw), السَّمَاءِ أَوِ (→ yāʾ).
• Matn: lines 209–211

Rāʾ tarqīq (extended) (تَرْقيق الراء)¶

• Rule: Warsh lightens (tarqīq) every rāʾ carrying fatḥah or ḍammah when it is preceded by a kasrah or a sākin yāʾ, going well beyond the standard tarqīq-after-kasrah that all reciters share for a kasra-rāʾ.
• Explanation: A sākin (non-istiʿlāʾ) letter between the kasrah and the rāʾ does not block the tarqīq, except the letters of istiʿlāʾ (and excepting خ). He keeps tafkhīm in foreign words and إِرَم, and in ذِكْرًا / سِتْرًا and their type (matn 346 «وَتَفْخِيمُهُ ذِكْرًا وَسِتْرًا وَبَابَهُ»). Two further named words: شَرَر (al-Mursalāt) he reads with tarqīq, and حَيْرَان (al-Anʿām) with khulf — tafkhīm or tarqīq (matn 347 «وَفي شَرَرٍ عَنْهُ يُرَقِّقُ … وَحَيْرَانَ بِالتَّفْخِيمِ بَعْضٌ»).
• Example: فِرْعَوْن, خَيْرٌ (rāʾ after sākin yāʾ → light); but إِرَم, ذِكْرًا → tafkhīm; شَرَر → tarqīq.
• Matn: lines 343–347

Lām taghlīẓ (after ص / ط / ظ) (تَغْليظ اللام)¶

• Rule: Warsh reads the (non-divine) lām with taghlīẓ — a thick, heavy lām when it is preceded by ص، ط، or ظ that carries a fatḥah or a sukūn.
• Explanation: A feature of Warsh via al-Azraq. (The divine lām of اللَّه follows the universal rule — heavy after fatḥah/ḍammah, light after kasrah.) طَالَ and فِصَالًا carry khulf; at waqf the lām is read with sukūn and the heavy form is preferred; verse-ends prefer tarqīq.
• Example: الصَّلَاة (ṣād + fatḥah), مَطْلَع (ṭāʾ + sukūn), ظَلَّ (ẓāʾ + fatḥah), أَظْلَمُ (ẓāʾ + sukūn).
• Matn: lines 359–360

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

• Rule: Beyond the idghām all reciters share, Warsh assimilates more than Qālūn/Ḥafṣ: the feminine tāʾ into ج، ز، س، ص، ظ (keeping iẓhār only before ث); the د of قد into ض، ظ. He reads the nūn of نٓ ۚ وَالْقَلَمِ with khulf. With the rest of the Ḥaramiyy group (Nāfiʿ + Ibn Kathīr) he assimilates the ṣād of Maryam's opening (كٓهٰيٰعٓصٓ ۝ ذِكْرُ) into the following ذ.
• Explanation: Where Qālūn and Ḥafṣ keep these letters clear (iẓhār), Warsh merges them into the close-makhraj letter that follows. Matn lines 263–267 (tāʾ/قد) and 282 (the Ḥaramiyy صٓ).
• Example: نَضِجَتْ جُلُودُهُمْ (tāʾ → ج), قَد ظَلَمُوا (idghām); كٓهٰيٰعٓصٓ ۝ ذِكْرُ (ṣād → ذ).
• Matn: lines 263–282

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

• Rule: Warsh (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

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

• The النَّبِيء family — read with a hamzah: Warsh (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: Warsh 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. Warsh-specific points: he opens يَدِيَ and the yāʾ of إِخْوَتِي, opens وَلِيَ دِينِ (al-Kāfirūn — with Ḥafṣ), and reads مَحْيَايَ with khulf (fatḥ/iskān); among the zawāʾid he affirms 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); Warsh and Qālūn agree on the bulk and split on the handful named above. (The named items are decoded from the matn; the complete per-word roster is in the matn appendix.)
• Example: إِنِّيَ أَعْلَمُ (yāʾ opened); مَحْيَايَ (Warsh, khulf); نَذِيرِي affirmed.
• Matn: lines 387–441

Farsh¶

The complete farsh of Warsh, in muṣḥaf order: each row gives the verse, Ḥafṣ's reading (for contrast), Warsh's actual reading, a Qurʾānic example, and the matn line. Warsh is a rāwī of Nāfiʿ, so wherever Nāfiʿ is named in a reading-clause that reading is Warsh's. Rows marked (awaiting confirmation) are decoded from low-confidence matn lines and not yet cross-checked against a printed sharḥ.