Ijaazah in Qur'anic recitation - Importance

[Abu Zayd al-Atharee]

As salaam alaikum wa rahmatullah,

I was discussing the importance of obtaining an Ijaazah in Qur'an with an Imam and, to my surprise, he considered it almost a waste of time.

He said that everyone has Ijaazah and everyone has Isnaad because of the fact that every Hafiz studied with a teacher who studied with his teacher and so on all the way to the Prophet of Allah (sallallahu 'alahi wa sallam).

I didn't want to argue with him, so I simply accepted what he said and remained silent. However, I think most will agree that normally there is a massive difference in the quality of recitation and Tajweed of one who had Ijaazah when when compared to one who hasn't obtained a written Ijaazah/Isnaad.

Also, wasn't the practise of Ijaazah bil Isnaad started right from the time of the Taabi'een and hasn't it always been a condition that one meets a certain standard before they can be issued an Ijaazah bil Isnaad.

If anyone has some words of wisdom on this topic then please advise, may Allah reward you all.

[Ayman bin khaled]

وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله وبركاته

The person you were conversing with is obviously a layperson but he distincted himself with being the one who has enough ignorance to say that Ijazah of the Quran is a waste of time.

First, you should advise this person not to speak without knowledge and sometimes silence worths millions and uttering one word that a person may never weight may cause him to be thrown in Hell for the distance of 70 autumns.

Second, to simplify this:

Example (1): 10 students entered Medicine school. All had the same teacher and all studied the same curriculum. Does this guarantee that all of them will graduate and become doctors? No. each one of them has to pass the medicine exam so they become accredited.

Example (2): 10 students entered Quran school. All had the same teacher and all studied the same book (Quran) and same curriculum (tajweed). Does this guarantee that all of them will master what they have learnt and be accredited? No. Because studying a topic is one thing and mastering it in practise is another thing. That is why there is Ijazah.

However, unfortunatly, today some people become lenient in this issue and issued Ijazah to people who do not even know how to recite the Fatiha correctly. And for sure this is something that Allah hold them accountable for on the Dya of Judgement. Neverthless, Ijaazah is required to assure a person recites correctly and according to tajweed rulings.

Wallahu Allam