Question

 

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah 

I have seen two different ways of reading Verse 4 of Sura Al-Masad. One of them puts a sign of obligatory stop (mim) over the word "wa-amra'tuh," while the other has no sign of stop at all. Could you please explain this situation and, above all, how to translate in English the two possible readings, considering that we have dhamma at the end of the phrase "wa'amra'tuhu" and fat'ha on "hammalata" :

 

1. "wa'mra'tuhu hammalata al-hatab [read without stop] 
2. "wa'mra'tuhu hammalata al-hatab [with stop before "hammalata"]

We know that the signs fat-ha, dhamma, and kasra can change the meaning intended, at least the grammatical formulation of the sentence.

Wassalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah

 

Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh.

The two different ways of stopping are both found in the book “Manaar al-Hudaa fee bayaan al-waqf wal-ibtidaa”, by Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Abdul Kareem Al-Ashmoonee, and produce two slightly different explanations of the aayaat.  The vowels, on   however in both ways of stopping do not change, only we stop with a sukoon when we read it the second way, as we stop on all words with a sukoon. 

To understand the meaning of the two ways of stopping, we need to look at the aayah before this one.  Aayah three of surah Al-Masad is:

 

The translation of the explanation of the meaning of this aayah (number three) can be:

“He will [enter to] burn in a Fire of [blazing] flame”.

We know that stopping at the end of an aayah is sunnah.  If we say the first word of the next aayah  and stop, we know then that this word is attached in meaning and grammar to the previous aayah, since by itself, it makes no sense.  The meaning then would be:

“He will [enter to] burn in a Fire of [blazing] flame and his wife [as well].”

 

This may sound awkward in English, but the second subject can be put at the end of a sentence or phrase in Arabic.  Another example of the second subject being delayed in its position in the phrase is:

“…That Allah is disassociated from the disbelievers, and [so is] His Messenger [disassociated]. (9:3)

 

When we stop on the word  and then continue on meaning: “(she) the carrier of  the fire wood “ The subject “she” is implied but hidden.

If aayah four is recited from the beginning to the end with no stop:

 

The the subject is very clearly stated, “his wife”. 

 

The word  is a noun in the emphasized form.  Only ‘Aasim reads it with a fat-h, all other readers recite it with a dhammah, meaning it is either the predicate 
( )of the nominal sentence with the implied “she”  being the subject ( ) if we stop on  or the predicate of the nominal sentence with being the subject  if we recite the aayah without stopping. 

When we recite  with a fat-h on the word , which we should if we are reading by the way of ‘Aasim (Hafs ‘an ‘Aasim), which is the way almost all Muslims recite today, the fat-h is due to the grammar form of dispraising of Abu Lahab’s wife, or because she is in the state of carrying ( ).

 

We added the grammar terms for added information.

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh.