(The disjointed letters in Qur'an) M. Rashid Hai
The 29 surah(verses) of Qura’n start with some disjointed letters called
‘huruf-e-muqatta’at’ – disjointed letters. Some of these muqatta’at comprises of
simply 1 letter, some of 2 letters, some 3 letters, some 4 letters and a few
comprises 5 letters. The surah starting with these muqatta’at are listed below:
There are 3 surah that start with simply one muqatta (singular of muqatta’at)
1- Surah 38, Suad: Suad
2- Surah 50, Quaf: Quaf
3- Surah 68, Al-Qalam: Noon
9 surah that start with 2 muqatta’at
1- Surah 20, Ta-Ha: Ta Ha
2- Surah 27, Al-namal: Ta Seen
3- Surah 36, Ya-Sin: Ya Seen
4- Surah 40, Al-momin: ha Meem
5- Surah 41, Al-hameem Sejda: ha Meem
6- Surah 43, Al-Zukhruf: ha Meem
7- Surah 44, Al-Dukhan: ha Meem
8- Surah 45, Al-Jaseya: ha Meem
9- Surah 46, Al-Ahqaf: ha Meem
13 sura that start with 3 muqatta’at
1- Surah 2, Al-Baqra: Alif Laam Meem
2- Surah 3, Ale-Imran: Alif Laam Meem
3- Surah 10, Yunus: Alif Laam Ra
4- Surah 11, Hud: Alif Laam Ra
5- Surah 12, Yusuf: Alif Laam Ra
6- Surah 14, Ibrahim: Alif Laam Ra
7- Surah 15, Al-Hijr: Alif Laam Ra
8- Surah 26, Al-Sho’ara: Ta Sin Meem
9- Surah 28, Al-Qasas: Ta Sin Meem
10- Surah 29, Al-ankaboot: Alif Laam Meem
11- Surah 30, Al-Room: Alif Laam Meem
12- Surah 31, Luqman: Alif Laam Meem
13- Surah 32, Al-Sejda: Alif Laam Meem
2 start with 4 muqatta’at
1- Surah 7, al-A’araaf: Alif Laam Meem Suad
2- Surah 13, al-Ra'd: Alif Laam Meem Ra
following 2 start with 5 muqatta’at
1- Surah 19, Maryam: Kaf Ha Ya Ain Suad
2- Surah 42, al-Shuraa: ha Meem; Ain Seen Quaf
The 14 letters used as muqattaat are as follows:
ح -ن - ق - س - ط - ص - ع
- ى - ە - ک - ر - م - ل - ا
one has coined a phrase by joining these words:
سر لحكيم نصه قطعا
of a sage who explained it in piecemeal."
phrase can be considered as a key to the fawateh of the Qur'an
shi'ite has joined the 14 letters and formed a phrase:
صراط علي حقه نمسكه
"Ali is on
the path of truth and we are also on the same path ".
sunnite formed the following phrase as a counter:
صح طريقك مع السنة
the path of Sunnah.”
A large number of scholarly books have been written over the centuries on the
possible meanings and probable significance of these disjointed letters the
muqatta’at. Opinions have been numerous but without a final conclusion. There is
no reliable report of Hazrat Muhammad SWA having used such expressions in his
ordinary speech, or his having thrown light on its usage in the Qur'an. And,
more importantly, none of his Companions seemed to have asked him about it. This
apparent lack of inquisitiveness is cited as proof that such abbreviations were
well known to the Arabs of the time and were in vogue long before the advent of
Islam. However the use of such letters faded away from Arabic literature with
the passage of time.
These letters- the muqatta’at fall into the category of ‘mutashabihat’ and what
Qur’an says about ‘mutashabihat in surah Aal-e-Imran verse 5-7: “ Nothing in the
earth or the heavens is hidden from Allah, It is He Who shapes you in the wombs
of your mothers as He wills. There is no deity but He, the All-Mighty, the
All-Wise. It is He who sent down this Book for you. There are two kinds of
verses in this Book: muhkamat’: they are the essence of the Book, and others, ‘mutashabihat’.
Those who are perverse of heart, always go after the ‘mutashabihat’ in pursuit
of mischief and try to interpret them arbitrarily, whereas, in fact none save
Allah knows their real meaning. In contrast to them, those who possess sound
knowledge, say, :We believe in them because all of them are from our Lord”. And
the fact is that only the people of insight can learn lessons from such
There is not a single saheeh(authentic) hadith that could provide the meanings,
details or explanations of these disjointed letters- the muqatta’at. “Allah
knows the best” could only be the most proper refrence regarding these letters.
However there is a saheeh hadith in which Allah’s Rasool SWA says ‘ I don’t say
that alif, laam, meem ia single word but alif is a letter, laam is a letter and
meem is aletter, and there is a ‘naikee’ (good-deed) to recite one letter and
each naikee (good-deed) is rewarded ten times’.
Allāh states clearly in the text that the Qur’ān is, ‘A Book whereof the Verses
are explained in detail – a Qur’ān in Arabic for people who know.’ (Sūrat al-Fuilat
/ha meem sejda – 41:3). The Qur’ān is referred to as a ‘clear proof’ (6:157) ‘a
manifest light’ (4:174; 42:52) and it has been ‘fully explained to mankind’
(17:89; 18:54; 39:27) readers are also encouraged to ‘think deeply’ (47:24)
about the text. In this particular verse, the Arabic verb ‘تدبر’ is used: it
means ‘to consider, reflect or meditate upon’. In other words, although Allāh
has stated categorically that the Qur’ān is a comprehensively revealed,
unambiguous text, readers are encouraged to reflect on it. Hence, scholars have
put forward a number of views regarding the significance of the muqatta’at,
their co-occurrence and placement. Traditional scholars have their opinions
to account for their(muqatta’at) meaning as follows:
These letters contain the names of Allah SWT. Contradicting this opinion,
scholars say that as per saheeh hadith there are 99 names of Allah SWT and those
names have no relevance with these letters.
Hazrat Ibn Abbas RA has said that in these muqatta’at the Ism-e-Azam is hidden
and ‘alif laam meem’ is an Ism-e-Azam. (Tafseer Ibn Kathir)
These letters when joined together with different combinations they emerge as
Allah’s name. For example when alif, laam,meem and ha, meem are joined with
noon, it makes Al-Rahman. It makes sense in this case but no second name can be
made with any other set of combinations.
These are the name of Rasool Allah SWA, while referring to ‘Ta-ha’ and ‘ya-seen’.
However this can also not be taken as very correct, because Rasool Allah SWA
himself told his names as Muhammad, Ahmad, Mahi and Hashir (Saheeh Bukhari).
These letters represent different names of Qur’an. Whereas Qur’an has itself
named as Al-kitab, Kitab-e-Mubeen, Qur’an, Qur’an majeed, Qur’an kareem, Qur’an
azeem, Firqan, Al-zikr, Al-hadith and Ahsanul hadith.
These letters are the names of different surahs. To some extent it appears to be
correct as ‘Suad’, Quaf, Taha, Yaseen are also the names of surahs. Sura
‘Al-Qalam’ is also called surah ‘noon’.
Abdul Rehman bin Zaid bin Aslam is also of this opinion. Allama Abul Qasim
Mehmood bin Umar Zamhashiri in his tafseer has written that a number of scholars
are also in agreement with this opinion. (Tafseer Ibn Kathir)
These letters refer to entire Islamic system. For example, ‘alif’ stands for
Allah, ‘laam’ stands for Jibraeel (Gabriel) and ‘meem’ stands for Muhammad SWA.
But this logic does not seem to be applicable to other letters.
These letters are challenges to infidels that you people also start your
writings and literature with such letters but look and realize the difference
between your literature and Qur’an and that you and all your companions
togathert can not present even a single sura like in Qur’an. Imam Bezavi stands
with this opinion. But this opinion does not seem to be logical because when the
meanings of these letters are not clear then how these letters could be termed
By counting and summing up the numerical values, through the science of
numerology, of these letters the time for the dooms day and the age of the
humanity can be determined. This opinion also does not hold ground, as at the
first instance to have faith on numerology is against shariah, and secondly the
humans can never, whatsoever, determine the time the day of judgment will occur.
Even Rasool Allah SWA was told about the timings of this day by Allah SWT.
These letters stand for words or phrases related to Allah and His attributes and
only the prophet Hazrat Muhammad SWA knows their meanings and details. It means
that these letters depict the private conversations between Allah SWT and Hazrat
Muhammad SWA. For this opinion it can be said that ‘Allah knows the best’.
These letters are based upon hard facts and are the secrets of Allah SWT. It is
not possible for the mankind to explore their realities and factualness. In
these such attributes of Allah SWT are hidden which are beyond human
These letters were used to attract the attention of the Prophet and later his
audience. (Marhoom Dr. Israr Ahmad of Tanzeem-e-Islami was of this view.)
Imam Fakhar uddin Al Razi (1149 – 1209) opined that Arabs used to name things
after such letters (for example, 'money' as 'ع', clouds as 'غ', and fish as
These letters are the abbreviations of the names of ‘katib-e-wahi’ (the
companions of Rasool Allah SWA to whom he SWA used to dictates the ‘wahi’ – the
This opinion is also presumptuous and have no authentic basis. There were not
less than 42 ‘katib-e-wahi’ whereas there are only 14 different muqatta’at.
Moreover the Qur'an was dictated by the Prophet and the ‘katibs’ wrote under his
direct supervision of Hazrat Muhammad SWA and they had no more connection with
the text nor there was any reason to permanently relate the text with their
One suggestion offered by an Qur'anic scholar Dr. Hashim Amir Ali (1903 – 1987)
From Hyderabad India deserves consideration. According to him:
“A simple explanation, but one which has not been offered by a single
commentator, is that each and every one of these 29 openings, without exception,
are vocatives or forms of address to the Prophet similar to “Ta Ha!” (S. 20),
“Ya –Sin!” (S. 36), “O thou, who is ordained!” (S. 73) or “O thou, on whom has
fallen the mantle!” (S. 74): their general sense can be conveyed by replacing
them with “O Muhammad!’’
The following facts go to prove or support the above thesis
(a) Every one of these 9 instances occur in the beginnings of the Surahs and
have, in fact, been referred to in early commentaries as al-Fawatih, or
‘openings’ of the Surahs. It is therefore, logical to regard them as forms of
address. This assumptionis confirmed by the fact that the text which follows the
‘Fawatih’ in each of the 29 cases, without exception, is couched in the second
(b) Only with one or two exceptions the immediately following words consist of
one or more of the following four reassuring statements so often addressed to
the Prophet in the Qur’an:
i. That the Qur’anic message is Truth manifest
ii. That the Addressee is ordained by the Divine and not by any other agency;
iii. That the righteous will accept the Message:
the Addressee must not consider his mission in vain and
iv. That failure to convince the hard-hearted must not daunt the Addressee.
(c) The fact that these letter-openings do not affect the meaning of the text
that follows supports the thesis that they are mere vocatives.
(a) The thesis is also supported by the fact that, by far the majority of the
Surahs beginning with such openings, 25 out of 29, were revealed during the
period when ostracized by people, the Prophet was sorely in need of reassurance.
This solution does not offer the actual words or meanings which these letters in
each case represent. But that is of secondary or even negligible importance.
Vocation, particles, forms of address, terms of esteem or appreciation,
sobriquets, aliases all these need have no specific meaning attached to them.
Since they do not affect the sense of the message that follows. It is enough to
know that they are only forms of address to Muhammad varying according to the
circumstances and contents of the message. Perhaps Muhammad himself understood
the words which the letters in each case represented but was too modest to
repeat them to the scribes; perhaps he merely felt their appreciative import but
was too sincere to replace the feeling with words. In any case this solution
does away with the innumerable far-fetched conjectures each of which has been
discountenanced by the exponents of others and have together contradicted the
claim of the Qur’an that its contents are clear and explicit to all who have
approach to it.(The message of Quran -1974-by Dr Hasim Amir Ali)
In 1974, an Egyptian biochemist named Rashad Khalifa claimed to have discovered
a mathematical code in the Qur'an based on these initials and the number 19,
which is mentioned in Sura 74:30 (“the hell fire ‘saqar’ is guarded by 19
angles”) of the Quran. According to his claims, these initials, which prefix 29
chapters of the Qur'an, occur throughout their respective chapters in multiples
of nineteen. He has noted other mathematical phenomena throughout the Quran, all
related to what he describes as the "mathematical miracle of the Qur'an."
Amin Ahsan Islahi (1904-1997), a renowned exegete of the Quran, has mentioned
that since Arabs once used such letters in their poetry, it was only appropriate
for Quran to use that same style. He agrees with Razi and mentions that since
these letters are names for Surahs, they are proper nouns. As such, they do not
necessarily refer to other matters. At the same time, he cites research from
Hamiduddin Farahi (1863-1930), a Quranic scholar from the Indian subcontinent,
on how these letters must be appropriately chosen according to the content and
theme of the surahs. Farahi links these letters back to Hebrew alphabet and
suggests that those letters not only represented phonetic sounds but also had
symbolic meanings, and Quran perhaps uses the same meanings when choosing the
letters for surahs. For instance, in support of his opinion, he presents the
letter Nun (ن), which symbolizes fish and Surah Nun mentions Prophet Younus
'companion of the fish'. Similarly, the letter Ta or Tuay (ط) represents a
serpent and all the Surahs that begin with this letter mention the story of
Prophet Musa and the serpents.
Western scholars have only occasionally attempted to explain them. In 1996,
Keith Massey proposed new evidence for an older theory that the muqatta’at
the "Mystery Letters" were the initials or monograms of the scribes who
originally transcribed the suras . As evidence for this, he demonstrated that
these letters themselves occur in a specific order, suggesting a hierarchy of
importance. This idea has not yet gained wide acceptance. Other explanations
have similarly failed to satisfactorily explain these letters.
Ibn Kathir in his ‘tafseer’ while commenting upon these muqatta’at says: ‘If
Hazrat Muhammad SWA has described some meanings to these letters, then it is
final and unquestionable. If Rasool Allah SWA has not explained any meanings to
these letters then we should also refrain in giving any meanings to these
letters and will have to believe that these are the letters from Allah SWT.
For us as mulims and true believers it should be our firm belief that these
letters the muqatta’at are revealed from Allah SWT, further neither these
letters are extraneously nor carelessly introduced in Qur’an, but are based upon
absolute realities. It should be particularly noted that it is neither
obligatory for us to know the meanings and details of these letters nor it is a
matter of shariah.
1- English translation of ‘Tafheem ul Qur’an’ by Syed Abul Aala Maududi
2- Tafseer Ibn Kathir
3- Al-huroof Muqattaat by Dr. Zakir A Naik
4- Tafseer ‘Taisurul Quran’ by Abdul Rahman Kelani
5- ‘Renaissance’ (july 2003) – A monthly publication of Al-Mawrid
6- ‘Renaissance’ (july 2003) – A monthly publication of Al-Mawrid
7- Massey, Keith (1996). "A New Investigation into the “Mystery Letters” of the
Quran" in 'Arabica', Vol. 43 No. 3. pp. 497–501.