Today I received a message which says: “Most worshippers make a mistake in du‘aa’ al-istiftaah (the opening supplication) in the prayer, when they say ‘wa ta‘aalaa jadduka (exalted be Your Majesty)’, with a fat-hah on the jeem. This is a grave mistake, because Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, has no father, no son and no grandfather (jadd)! The correct way is to say ‘jidduka’ with a kasrah on the jeem; what it means is that greatness belongs to Allah.” How sound is this? And what is the correct pronunciation, jadduka or jidduka?

Praise
be to Allah

Muslim narrated
in his Saheeh (399) that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab used to recite these
words out loud, saying: “Subhaanaka Allahumma wa bi hamdika, tabaaraka
asmuka wa ta‘aala jadduka wa laa ilaaha ghayruka (Glory and praise be to
you O Allah, blessed be Your name and exalted be Your Majesty; there is no
god but You).”

This has been
narrated in marfoo‘ reports (with isnaads going back to the Prophet
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)) and in mawqoof reports in which
the isnaad ends with ‘Umar or other Companions of the Prophet (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him).

See: as-Sunan
by ad-Daaraqutni (2/58); Silsilat al-Ahaadeeth as-Saheehah (2996);
Sifat Salaat an-Nabi (sall-Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), by al-Albaani (may
Allah have mercy on him), p. 93

The scholars of
hadith, fiqh, Arabic language and others have stated that the vowelling on
this word is a fat-hah, so it is read as al-jadd; they did not mention
anything else.

Al-jadd means
majesty or greatness.

So what the
hadith means is: Exalted be Your greatness.

An-Nawawi (may
Allah have mercy on him) said in Tahdheeb al-Asmaa’ wa’l-Lughaat
(3/331):

The phrase in
du‘aa’ al-istiftaah, “Wa ta‘aalaa jadduka”, with a fat-hah on the
jeem, mean: Exalted be Your greatness.

And it was said
that what is meant by al-jadd is independence of means. Both meanings are
good, although al-Khattaabi did not mention anything but greatness. Another
example is the verse in which Allah, may He be exalted, says, speaking of
the jinn (interpretation of the meaning):

“And
[it teaches] that exalted is the nobleness [jadd] of our Lord”

[al-Jinn
72:3].

End quote.

Al-Ba‘li said in
al-Matla‘ ‘ala Abwaab al-Maqna‘ (p. 46):

[It is to be
pronounced as] “Wa ta‘aalaa jadduka”, with a fat-hah on the jeem. End
quote.

Al-Bahooti (may
Allah have mercy on him) said in Kashshaaf al-Qinaa‘ (2/478):

[It is to be
pronounced as] “Wa ta‘aalaa jadduka”, with a fat-hah on the jeem;
What it means is: exalted be Your greatness. End quote.

In Ibn Qaasim’s
commentary on ar-Rawd al-Murbi‘ (2/22) it says:

The word al-jadd,
with a fat-hah on the jeem, means greatness, fortune, happiness, and
independence of means. The word ta‘aala (exalted be…) means: Great is
His… This refers to His being emphatically great. It is indicative of the
utmost and ultimate highness: Exalted be Your Majesty, exalted be Your
greatness, which surpasses all other greatness; Your might supersedes all
other might; Your dominion overrides all other dominion. End quote.

In Tawdeeh
al-Ahkaam Sharh Buloogh al-Maraam by al-Bassaam (2/169), it says:

Jadduka, with a
fat-hah on the jeem and a shaddah on the daal, means: Your greatness, Your
might, and Your dominion. End quote.

This word – jadd
– appears several times with a fat-hah on the jeem in the Holy Qur’an and
the Prophetic Sunnah.

Allah, may He be
exalted, tells us that the jinn said:

“And
[it teaches] that exalted is the nobleness [jadd] of our Lord; He has not
taken a wife or a son”

[al-Jinn
72:3].

As-Sa‘di (may
Allah have mercy on him) said (p. 890): That is, exalted be His greatness
and sanctified be His names. End quote.

Al-Qurtubi (may
Allah have mercy on him) said (19/8): “exalted
is the nobleness [jadd] of our Lord”
means: His greatness and His majesty. End quote.

The Prophet
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “O Allah, none can withhold
what You give, and none can give what You withhold, and the good fortune [jadd]
of any fortunate person is to no avail against You.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari
(844) and Muslim (593).

The scholars
said that what this means is: the good fortune, independence of means and
status of the fortunate, independent and high-ranking person are all to no
avail against You.

Ibn Rajab said
concerning the words of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon
him), “and the good fortune [jadd] of any fortunate person is to no avail
against You”:

What is meant by
the word jadd, with a fat-hah on the jeem, in this hadith is: All that the
person who is independent of means possesses of resources will not avail him
against You.

End quote from
Fat-h al-Baari by Ibn Rajab (7/417).

An-Nawawi said
in Sharh Saheeh Muslim:

With regard to
the phrase dhaa’l-jadd (translated here as fortunate person), the
most well-known view is that there is a fat-hah on the jeem. This is the way
it was vowelled by the earlier and later scholars.

Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr
said: Some of them narrated it with a kasrah (jidd). Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn
Jareer at-Tabari said: It is with a fat-hah. Ash-Shaybaani pronounced it
with a kasrah, but this is contrary to what is known to those who narrated
the reports. It is not known that anyone else said that.

At-Tabari and
those who came after him regarded the reports which spell this word with a
kasrah as da‘eef (weak). They said: Regardless of the weakness of the
report, what this word (i.e., jidd) means is striving hard. In other words,
the phrase would mean that the effort of one who strives hard will not avail
him against You; all that could benefit him and save him is Your mercy.

And it was said
that what is meant is the one who strives his utmost for worldly gain.

It was also said
that what it means is hastening to flee; in other words, if a person hastens
to flee, his haste in fleeing will not avail him, for He is within Your
grasp and subject to Your control and dominion.

The correct and
well-known view is that al-jadd, with a fat-hah, refers to good fortune,
independence of means, greatness and dominion. What is meant is: if a person
enjoys good fortune in this world, his wealth, sons, greatness and power
will not avail him against You and his good fortune will not save him from
You; rather what will benefit him and save him is righteous deeds, as Allah,
may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):

“Wealth
and children are [but] adornment of the worldly life. But the enduring good
deeds are better to your Lord”

[al-Kahf
18:46].

End quote.

Thus it will
become clear that the correct vowelling of the phrase “wa ta‘aala jadduka”
is with a fat-hah on the jeem, according to scholarly consensus, and what is
referred to is greatness.

It is not
correct to pronounce it with a kasrah (jidduka); this is distorting
the words of the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him),
because he (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) pronounced it with a
fat-hah and the scholars did not refer to any alternative pronunciation.

Moreover,
pronouncing it with a kasrah changes the meaning of the hadith, because al-jidd
(with a kasrah) means striving hard or seriousness, which is the opposite of
frivolity. This is not what is meant in this hadith.

What anyone who
wants to alert people to the mistakes they make must do is make sure of what
he is saying before spreading it, especially if it has to do with Islamic
rulings and prophetic hadith, so that he will not be telling lies
inadvertently against the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon
him), and so that he will not be telling them not to do what is right and
will be telling them to do it the wrong way, in which case he will become
one of “those
whose effort is lost in worldly life, while they think that they are doing
well in work”
[al-Kahf 18:104].

And Allah knows
best.


Summary of the answer:


The way this phrase is to be pronounced is “wa ta‘aala jadduka” with
a fat-hah on the jeem, according to scholarly consensus, and what is
referred to is greatness.


It is not permissible to pronounce it with a kasrah on the jeem (jidduka),
because this is distorting the words of the Messenger, who (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him) pronounced it with a fat-hah and the scholars
did not refer to any alternative pronunciation.