Assalaamu alaykum. What is the ruling on making tajweed (rules of the recitation of the Quran) of regular Arabic texts such as hadiths, poetry, or common stories? Is it considered mocking the Quran? Also related to this is that some people call their poetry 'surahs' (chapters) or 'ayat' (verses). So what is the ruling on naming a piece of poetry a surah or an ayah? May Allaah reward you.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

We have already mentioned in fatwa 97274 that it is not permissible to apply the rules of tajweed to normal conversation and to a speech other than the Quran as this has not been reported from any scholar.

Shaykh Abdul Kareem Al-Khudayr, may Allaah protect him, was asked the following question in his commentary on Tafseer Al-Jalaalayn: “What is the ruling of applying the rules of tajweed to Prophetic ahaadeeth, because this matter has become widespread lately?” 

He replied:

“As for the tarteel (applying the rules of the recitation of the Quran) according to the rules that have been set for the recitation of the Quran and the regulations for the tarteel of the Words of Allaah, then it is not permissible to liken to it the words of the creatures, even those of the Prophet . It is not permissible to apply them to other than the Words of Allaah in a way that one reads the ahaadeeth or other words of humans as if he is reciting the Quran; no this cannot be. As for reading the hadeeth without applying the rules of the recitation of the Quran with a good voice, then this is not problematic; rather, this may make people more attentive to listening and then paying attention and understanding.” 

However, reading the ahaadeeth, poetry, stories and other while applying the rules of the recitation of the Quran is not considered mocking the Quran by itself unless there is an indication that proves that it is mockery.

As for naming a particular piece of poetry by such and such soorah (chapter) or aayah (verse), then it appears that this is forbidden because the soorah and aayah are peculiar to the Quran contrary to other speech, even if it is a Prophetic hadeeth.

Shaykh Sayyidi Abdullaah ibn Al-Haaj Ibraaheem stated in his poem about terminology, named Tal’at Al-Anwaar, that what distinguishes the Quran from the hadeeth is that the sentences of the Quran are called aayahs or soorahs, so that distinguishes it from poetry with greater reason. He said, “The sentences of the Quran are called verses, but the hadeeth is never called so.”

Shaykh Hasan al-Mashshaat said in Raf’ Al-Astaar ‘an Muhayya Mukhaddaraat Tal’at Al-Anwaar:

“The sentences of the Quran, i.e. this is something peculiar to the Quran – that the sentence from the Quran is called a aayah; this is like it was mentioned in An-Niqaayah: 'A group of the words of the Quran that is distinct with a separation, which is the end of the verse, and it is called a faasilah. Sowar is the plural of soorah, which is a group of words from the Quran that is given a special name that was determined by the Prophet … and the hadeeth is not like the Quran in what was mentioned before.'”

For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 239494.

Allaah knows best.