How Can I Properly Pronounce the Two Blessed Names, Muhammad and Ahmad?
Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch
Question
How do I properly pronounce the Names of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace), Ahmad and Muhammad?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.
How to Pronounce the Names: Ahmad and Muhammad
The two blessed names of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace), Muhammad and Ahmad, are correctly pronounced in their Arabic forms: (مُحَمَّدْ) and (أَحْمَدْ).
Due to the complexity of the Arabic language and the difficulty entailed in transliterating such a vast language – you may see various spellings of Arabic names.
For example, the name Ahmad is sometimes spelled Ahmed, and the name Muhammad is sometimes spelled Muhammed or Mohammed.
Changes of the Endings of Words Due to Grammar
The same thing applies to the ending of names. In Arabic, depending on the grammatical postioning of a word in a sentence, the vowels on the final letter may change.
For example, when we call the Adhan (the call to prayer), we say – “Ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah,” whereas in the testification of faith (the shahada), we say – “La ilaha ill Allah Muhammadun Rasulullah.” This is due to the placement and grammatical role of the names in the sentence.
Advice
From your question, I feel you have a curiosity and a thirst for knowing more. I would advise you to act on this desire to learn and study the Arabic language and the various sciences of the Religion. The more one becomes familiar with the language of the Quran, the more a whole new world of meanings is opened to them.
Allah bless you to seek sacred knowledge. Consider the online classes offered on SeekersGuidance.
Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Shaykh Yusuf Weltch teaches Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he completed four years at the Darul Uloom Seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences.
He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he studied for three years in Dar al-Mustafa under some of the most outstanding scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib.
In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Quran and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Quranic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.
