Question

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah

Today's question is on the vowelling system on the words  (Al-Baqara, 2:62) and  (Al-Maaidah, 5:69). Grammatically, these two verses start with the same basic structure, so I do not understand why the letter hamza has different vowels in the the same word (fat-ha at 2:62 and dhamma at 5:69). Could you please help me understand this situation?

Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh.  This is an excellent question and one that non-Arabs as well as Arabs should try to understand and be able to explain. 

The two aayaat are similar in meaning, the first, aayah 62 of surah al-baqarah is:

The explanation of the translation of the meaning is:

Indeed, those who believed and those who were Jews or Christians or Sabeans [before Prophet Muhammed ]-those [among them] who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness-will have their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve.

 In the above aayah, the word  is conjucted to the beginning phrase "those who believe" and is affected by the letter  as the other nouns are, with  (accusative) which in the case of the word  is shown by the letter  after the hamzah.

 The other aayah, Al-Maa'idah 69 is:

In this aayah, we note that the Sabeans, is written with a wow after the hamzah, .  The issue here is not one of meaning so much as grammar.  The noun  now is clearly not conjuncted to the phrase "those that believe" and not affected by the letter .  Instead, it is considered to be the subject of nominal sentence, , that is late in the sentence structure, and with an implied but not stated predicate meaning: "are like that too".  The aayah in surah al-Maa'idah would then mean: Indeed those who believed [in Prophet Mohammed] and those [before him] who were Jews or Christians-those [among them] who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness-no fear will there be concerning them, nor will the grieve; and the Sabeans as well. 

 The aayah in surah al-Baqarah is the more common use of conjunctions, all following the first subject in grammar.  The second aayah  in question in surah al-Maa'idah is perfectly allowed and practiced in the Arabic language, but less common.  Almost all grammar books, or grammar books on the Qur'an quote ancient poetry which has lines with the same grammatical make up to show that this is acceptable and practiced in the Arabic language.