إنّ من أشرف ما يشتغل به الإنسان كتاب الله تعالى والعلوم المتعلقة به؛ إذ شرف العلم بشرف متعلّقه، ولَمَّا كان القرآن الكريم كلام ربّ العالمين، كان من البديهيّ أن تتعدّد علومه، وكيف لا وهو كتاب نزل لتبيان كلّ شيء؛ كما قال تعالى: ، ولكن علوم القرآن الكريم مهما تنوّعت وتعدّدت فإنّها –
لا شكّ -تتفاوت درجاتها ومراتبها من حيث الصلة بالقرآن الكريم، فمنها ما هو شديد الصلة به، ومنها ما هو متوسّط الصلة، ومنها ما هو دون ذلك.
ومن العلوم الشديدة الصلة بالقرآن الكريم علم الوقف والابتداء، فهو أحد جزأي الترتيل كما ورد عن الخليفة الراشد عليّ رضي الله عنه حيث قال: "الترتيل: تجويد الحروف ومعرفة الوقوف"([1])، وفيه تكون القراءة مفسِّرة، فيفهِم القارئ سامعه معاني الآيات المحكمة المفصّلة، ولهذا كان النبيّ صلّى الله عليه وسلّم يعلّم الصحابة مواضع الوقوف في القرآن الكريم كما يعلّمهم قراءةَ الآيةِ.
The most honorable thing that a person can do is the Book of God Almighty and the sciences related to it; since the honor of knowledge is due to the honor of its subject, and since the Holy Qur'an is the speech of the Lord of the Worlds, it was obvious that its sciences would be multiple, and how could it not be when it is a book that was revealed to explain everything; but the sciences of the Holy Qur'an, no matter how diverse and numerous they are, they – without a doubt – vary in their degrees and ranks in terms of their connection to the Holy Qur'an, some of which are closely related to it, some of which are moderately related, and some of which are less than that. One of the sciences closely related to the Holy Quran is the science of stopping and starting. It is one of the two parts of recitation, as reported by the Rightly-Guided Caliph Ali, may God be pleased with him, where he said: “Recitation: the perfection of letters and knowledge of stopping" ( ). In it, the reading is interpreted, so the reader makes his listener understand the meanings of the precise and detailed verses. For this reason, the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, taught the companions the places of stopping in the Holy Quran, just as he taught them to read the verse.
([1]) النشر لابن الجزري: (1/255).