Stopping on the Ends of Words
Stopping on words with a weak ending
Words ending in a
We will repeat once again the general rules
for words ending with a weak letter, meaning ending in an alif, a
, or a
:
They are:
1.
If the medd letter is established in
writing and a saakin letter does not follow it, the medd letter is then
affirmed and established in pronunciation when stopping just as it is when
continuing following the writing of the Qur'an.
2. If
a saakin follows a word ending in a medd letter, the medd letter then is
dropped in pronunciation when continuing, because of the forbidding of two
saakin letters from meeting between two words, but is established in
pronunciation when stopping.
3. If
the medd letter is not present in the written copy of the Qur'an, the medd
letter is dropped in pronunciation when continuing and stopping.
Hafs 'an 'Aasim follows the writing
in the mus-haf, so if a
is
written at the end of a word, and we are stopping on that word, we stop with a
;
if a word ends without a
written,
then Hafs 'as 'Aasim stops without the letter
.
One may wonder why we even mention this, since if it is not written we do not
pronounce it; but there are some
's
not written at the end of words and some of the ways of recitation establish
the when
stopping on the word, and others establish the unwritten
when
both continuing and stopping. These are called
.
Examples of these are in the following words:
in
the phrase:
in
the phrase:
in
the phrase:
in
the phrase:
An important note is that these are just
examples, and there are many occurrences (more than 100) in the Qur'an of the
extra not
written. There are also times where these same words occur with the
written,
and when this happens, Hafs 'an 'Aasim, as well as all the different qira'aat
establish the ya' when stopping as well as continuing as long as a saakin
letter doesn't follow it when continuing. An example of this is the word:
;
as we can see there is a
written
at the end of this word, so we pronounce it when stopping and continuing,
since it is not followed by a saakin.
If there is a
written
at the end of a word, and the next following word has a saakin letter as the
first pronounced letter, the
is
dropped in pronunciation when continuing, following rule number two, as in:
There is one place in the Glorious
Qur'an where Hafs' 'an 'Aasim stops on a word without a regular written
two
possible ways, one with establishing the
,
the other without the
.
This is in aayah 36 in surah An-Naml (27:36), on the word 
in
the phrase:
Hafs 'an 'Aasim reads
this word with the
with
a fat-h on it when continuing. To summarize: Hafs 'an 'Aasim stops on the
word in
surah An-Naml two possible ways, either with a
saakinah
or without the
and
therefore stopping with a 
saakinah.
When continuing, Hafs reads this word with an established
and
an accompanying fat-h. In all other words, if there is a written
at
the end of the word, Hafs stops on the word with the
,
and if there is no written
,
Hafs does not pronounce the
.
We will not be
explaining more,
as this is in the realm of the study of the qira'aat. The most important
thing to remember is that Hafs follows the writing of the Qur'an for words
ending with a ,
with the exception of aayah 36 of An-Naml.
This ends the subject
of stopping on the ends of words.
