Islamonweb

The disconnected letters (al-ḥurūf al-muqaṭṭaʿah) are among the distinctive features of the Qur’an. They appear at the beginning of twenty-nine sūrahs, either as one letter, two letters, three letters, four letters, or five letters.

Scholars have differed in their interpretations, and the safest approach is to avoid claiming a definitive interpretation without evidence.

One view is that the exact meaning of these letters is known only to Allah. Imām al-Qurṭubī mentioned that ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī, Sufyān al-Thawrī, and a group of ḥadīth scholars considered these letters to be among the secrets of Allah in the Qur’an. According to this view, they are from the mutashābih, whose full reality Allah alone knows. This position is also reported from Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib رضي الله عنهما. Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī reports from ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and Ibn Masʿūd رضي الله عنهم that these letters are from what is concealed and not to be interpreted definitively.

A stricter form of this approach is attributed to Ibn Ḥazm, who considered it impermissible to seek out fixed meanings for these disconnected letters, since he regarded them as part of the mutashābih.

Another major view is that these letters indicate the miraculous nature of the Qur’an.  Ibn ʿĀshūr preferred the explanation that these letters function as a form of challenge to the Arabs: the Qur’an is composed of the very letters they use in their language, yet they were unable to produce anything like it. This view is supported by al-Zamakhsharī, al-Khāzin, al-Nasafī, al-Bayḍāwī, Abū al-Suʿūd, al-Shihāb, al-Farrāʾ and many modern scholars such as Dr Sayyid Ṭanṭāwī.

 Therefore, it is not necessary for a Muslim to assign a definite meaning to the disconnected letters. We recite them as part of the Qur’an, believe that they are from Allah, and accept that scholars have differed regarding their wisdom and meaning. The safest position is not to claim certainty where there is no decisive proof.

Allah knows best.