Question

Salamu-alaykum.  I would like to know what is the correct way to understand the tajweed rule in surah (Al-Qiyaamah 29) 75:29

the phrase [bismillah] {wal}:wa'un-lamun sakun}, however, I thought the ta'un was a shams letter, which the wa'un would connect (sakin) with the ta'un. therefore, I thought the the phrase would be [bismilah] {wattaffa}: excuse my phonetic narration, I did not have Arabic windows/ or keyboard software.

Wy thought was that the lamum is part of the word which is the tri-literal root of LAFAFA.

Please explain in detail, and recommend any books I can study from.

salamu-alakum

Answer

The definite article  (“the” in English) preceded by a hamzah wasl is called .  This enters nouns only. When there is merging of the definite article into the first letter of the noun (meaning laam shamsiyah), the first letter of the noun has a shaddah on it, as in: , and the  is not pronounced, since it has merged into the next letter.

 The word in question:  is a verb preceded by a conjunctive   .  The verb is a five letter base meaning, to wrap or coil, with the letter    as part of the essence of the verb, not an additive to the verb.   The is pronounced clearly here.   The hamzah al-wasl is needed when beginning with the word, because of the  saakinah.  When starting this word we would employ the conjunctive and not use the hamzah wasl, but if, for theory sake we wanted to start on this word without the  , we would put a kasrah on the hamzah al-wasl, since the third letter of the verb has a fat-h.  There are a few other cases of verbs in the Glorious Qur’an that can be mistaken for nouns beginning with alif lam ta’reef ( ), such as:

  and

   

Please also see the lessons on hamzah al-wasl in the tidbit archives.

The books that will help you are Arabic grammar books.  Although we ourselves have not reviewed them, there are Arabic language downloads located on the front page of www.fatwa-online.com.  They are the books used in the Islamic University of Medinah for teaching non-Arabs the Arabic language. 

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allah.