Question

Praise and thanks be to Allah, the following words appear in surat-il Kahf,: .  My question is : here there is a medd letter (the alif maqsoora saakinah after the fat-ha on the  ) followed by a sukoon, actually by two sukoons one on the hamzat-al wasl and one on the lam after it, so there is a medd letter followed by a sukoon which should result in a mad laazim (as I understand, the sukoon following the medd letter is the condition for the mad laazim).  Could you please explain why there is not a long medd here?

Answer

A very good question, masha’ Allah.  The rule for a medd laazim is as you stated: a medd letter is followed by an original (permanent) sukoon, BUT they need to be within the same word, such as in .  There is a general rule in Arabic that there should not be two pronounced saakin letters in a row, specifically between two words.  When there is a saakin letter on the end of a word, and the first pronounced letter of the following word is saakin, either the last letter in the first word receives a presented vowel (not part of the original make up of the word), such as the noon saakinah in the word , when followed by a pronounced sakoon in the next word as in the aayah , or the last letter in the first word is dropped, as in the aayah you mentioned from surah al-kahf.  When the last letter of the first word is a medd letter, it is always dropped in pronunciation when followed by a word that begins (the first pronounced letter) with a sukoon.  

Hamzah al-wasl is not considered a saakin letter.  Hamzah wasl is only used when starting with the word that has hamzah al-wasl, and then it receives a vowel.  If reading in continuum from one word to a second word, the hamzah al-wasl is completely ignored.