Question

Assalamu alaikum,

Thank you for replying to my previous question regarding the saktah in the various turuq of Hafs (http://www.abouttajweed.com/261202.htm).

I have some further questions if you would be so kind:

1) The sakt khaas and sakt 'aam, do they apply to madd letters also (e.g. "wa maaaa[pause]adraaka, or "kayfa yashaaaa[pause]u" in Hafs

2) In the beginning of surah aali Imran I heard that in Hafs in the way of Shaatibiyyah there are two ways of continuing through the first verse:
a) alif laaaaaa mmeemallaahu (2 counts)
b) alif laaaaaa mmeeeeeemallahu (6 counts). Is this true? If so is it true for Hafs generally or is it just this tareeq?

Thanks for your time
Was salam

Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh.

You are most welcome, and may Allah reward you greatly for the good questions that benefit the visitors to the site.

1. No there are no saktaat after medd letters.  The poem     by Sheikh Abdulazeez ‘Uyoon As-Sood verified this with the following:

“The sakt is for a saakin before a hamzah, not [for] the medd.”

The words translated literally as “not the medd” mean there is no sakt on a medd letter. 

 2.  Yes this is true, but it is not specific for Hafs.  All the qira’aat have these two allowed ways of reading when joining the first and second aayah of Aali ‘Imraan .  The reason two counts are allowed when continuing is that the last  acquires a transient or conditional fat-h on it because of the meeting of two saakin letters; the last  saakinah of in aayah one , and the  of the Glorious name of Allah,  in aayah two.   There is then no longer a sukoon after a medd letter in the , so the allowed two vowel counts reflects this.  The allowed six vowel counts reflects the original sukoon that was on the  in the  .  We found reference to this not in the Shaatibiyyah poem, but in the book by Sheikh Muhammed Makkee Nasr, lines of poetry attributed to the author of “Al-Kanz” are found.  They are as follows:

”And lengthen it fully at the openings [letters]  
 and if vowelling arises then shorten and lengthen

For all, and that one in Aali ‘Imran already came
And Warsh alone in Al-‘Ankabut for him both.”

In summary then, all of the qira’aat allow both two and six vowel counts of the separate letter   when joining the first and second aayaat of surah ‘Aali ‘Imraan.  The recitation of Warsh also allows both ways at the beginning of surah Al-‘Ankabut, and that it because of rules special to that way of recitation.

You are most welcome.

Wa assalaam alaikum wa rahmatu Allah.