Question

Assalamu alaykum. 

Could you please outline the rules for laam in Warsh. I was listening to Warsh and found that there are differences in tafkheem.

jazakallahu khayran.  wa salaam

Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh.  

 Heaviness of the

The terms and    are synonyms.  The scholars tend to use the word  for velarization of the letter , and tend to use the word  for velarization of the .  Warsh has  of  when all of the  following conditions are met:

          A.   has a fat-hah.

          B.  is preceded by ,  , or .

          C. These three letters ( ,  , or ) have either a fat-hah or a sukoon.

If all three of these conditions are met, then there is  of the .  Examples of this are found in the following words:
 .

There are two ways of reading the following words (meaning with tafkheem of the  and without) because of the alif between the letter causing the tafkheem and the  :   in aayah surah Al-Baqarah,  and in aayah 128 of surah An-Nisaa’.   

There are also two allowed ways of reading words fulfilling the conditions, but the letter  is the last letter of the word and one is stopping on it with an incidental (temporary) sukoon. Examples of this are when stopping on the following words: and    .

If there is an alif following the  and there are two possible ways of reading the alif, with and absence of any type when stopping and/or continuing on the alif, then two ways are allowed for the . When reading without there is  of the  and when reading with  there is tarqeeq of the .  Examples: (Al-Baqarah 125) ,  (Al-Israa 18, Al-Layl 15) . 

If the only way of reciting the word is with , then there is only tarqeeq of  such as when stopping the end of the aayaat on the 10 special surahs that end in  in the reading of Warsh:  (Al-Qiyaamah 31) .

The following chart is a summary of the rules for the  for Warsh.

 

 Wa iyyaakum.  Wa assalaam alaikum wa rahmatu Allah.