Question

Asalaam alaikum.
I was going over your notes for the secondary attributes which is the one under characteristics of sifaat and you only put 6 with out opposites.. but rather there are 10 secondary attributes.. you are missing the following ones.. ghunnah, qalqalah, madd, mutasilah.  From my knowledge these are the ones missing. If for any reason if you think they are not part of the secondary attributes., please kindly let me know why.
Jakallah kairan wa kairan jaza’ for you patience!

Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh.  

The characteristics without opposites are not secondary attributes, but intrinsic attributes that never leave the letter.  They are not in pairs like the characteristics with opposites, but still essential to the letter and are not less important than the other characteristics.

There are some scholars that include the qalqalah as an intrinsic characteristic but we are of the opinion, as many scholars are, that since the qalqalah is apparent only when the letter is saakin, it is not considered intrinsic to the letter, but instead a conditional characteristic that comes and goes according to the circumstances or conditions.  In this case, the qalqalah only is apparent when one of the letters of the group is saakin.  

The scholars also vary as to whether the ghunnah is considered a characteristic or a letter. The ghunnah can be both and it has a specific articulation point, but is an inherent part of the two letters  and . These two letters cannot be pronounced correctly without the ghunnah.  We accept it being both, and later changed our written curriculum to include it in the characteristics, but have yet to change it on this site.  

The medd is not an inherent characteristic of the medd letters, but instead is circumstantial or conditional,  being present only when followed by a hamzah or a sukoon.  The section on characteristics is about inherent characteristics, not conditional characteristics.  There is no difference of opinion on this that we are aware of.  We are not sure what is meant by “mutasilah”.  There is a type of medd that is waajib mutasil, meaning the hamzah and medd letter are in one word, but this is not an inherent characteristic, rather it is circumstantial.

Wa iyyakum.  Jazakum Allahu khairan for your comments, they have helped point out differences of scholarly opinion in some matters and may Allah increase us all in knowledge.