Words are divided into two categories pertaining to the ending of the word, in other words, the last letter.  The end of a word can be classified as  (strong), meaning the last letter is not an  alif or a , or a .   

The second category for the end of a word is called:  (weak), meaning the last letter is an  alif or a , or a .     This is exemplified in:..

 

We will be spending the next several lessons on the subject of stopping on words with strong endings. 

The Stop on a Word With a Strong Ending

In a  word with  a strong ending (), the last letter of this word can have a sukoon when continuing or stopping, such as in , or it can be voweled and the sukoon is presented when stopping, as in .   If the end of the word has a fixed sukoon, the stop can only be with a sukoon, as the  in  .

If the end of the word was voweled and we are stopping on it with a presented sukoon, then there are five possible ways of stopping on it.

   1.        (the pure, unmixed sukoon)

     2.           (giving only 1/3 of a vowel count)-to be discussed later

     3.           (a dhammah of the two lips, with no sound)-to be discussed later

     4.           (deletion)

     5.           (substitution)

We we start by explaining  then in the next lesson , insha' Allah,  to avoid confusion later when explaining some possibilities in the pure sukoon category. 

Stopping with  and What is Allowed With it

The linguistic definition of  : The request

 Its applied tajweed definition: Weakening of the sound with a vowel until most of its sound disappears with that weakening.  It is also defined as using part of a vowel.

When discussing  below, please note that we are addressing the vowel on the last letter of a word.

The scholars have determined that the weakening of the sound with a vowel, or reciting with part of a vowel is one third when stopping with  .  More is removed from the vowel than remains when reciting with.  The sound is weakened due to the shortening of its time; the close listener can hear it, even if blind.

Stopping with  can be on dhammah of conjugated ( ) and fixed dhammahs ( ) and can be on the kasrah of conjugated (  )and fixed kasrahs (  ).  It does not matter if the letter stopped on is without a shaddah, or with a shaddah, whether the last letter is a hamzah or not,  or whether it as a tanween or not.  If there is a tanween it must not be

    1.    "Maftoohah"; meaning it must not have a fat-h. 

    2.   (a word with a tanween ending with alif maqsoora) , as in .

The tanween in both of these cases is changed into an alif when stopping.  Again, it is not possible to stop on words ending with a tanween fat-h with . 

 cannot be on a fat-h whether it is conjugated or fixed and it also cannot be on a presented kasrah or dhammah put on a letter to get rid of the occurrence of two saakin letters juxtaposed.

 

 Sheikh Ash-Shatabee in his prose: , described  in the following way.

The word that we are stopping on using , meaning giving the dhammah or kasrah on the last letter 1/3 of its normal vowel timing is treated as we do when continuing as far as tafkheem and tarqeeq of the letter , the counting of , and the observance of a qalqalah on the letters of qalqalah.  In other words, there would only be two counts on , there would be no qalqalah on the letters of qalqalah, and the tafkheem or tarqeeq of the  would depend on the vowel on the last letter.