What Follows the Natural Lengthening Rules

The Substitute Lengthening

The last tidbit, now located in the tidbit archives mentioned that there are two different medd that follow the count of the natural medd, meaning they have two vowel counts.  The first lengthening of this sort, The Lesser Connective Lengthening, or , was described last lesson.  This lesson the second of these two lengthenings, The Substitute Lengthening, or  will be explained.

It is substituting a lengthened alif for the tanween with a fath, when stopping on it.  The lengthening is two counts, which means, the length of two vowels, the same as the counts of , or natural lengthening.  This medd takes place whether there is an alif written after the letter with the tanween or not.  When continuing reading and not stopping on the word that has the tanween with a fat-h, this lengthening disappears, and the noon sakinah rules are applied to the tanween.  If there is an alif written after the tanween, it is dropped when continuing.

Examples:

The tanween is usually a sign of a noun, but there are a two cases when verbs have a tanween on them representing the light emphasized , and not part of a noun.  The two places are highlighted in red in the following aayaat:

The rule is the same when stopping on these two words; a two vowel count alif is substituted for the tanween when stopping.  When continuing on, these words are recited with the tanween and the appropriate  saakinah rules applied, just as in the examples of the nouns above.

EXCEPTION: Not included in this medd is , or female .  This letter occurs on the end of nouns, indicates female gender, and is represented in Arabic as: , or when linked to the letter before it, it looks like: .   This letter is always read as a  saakinah when stopping on the word, and is always read as a  in the case of continuing .  The written vowel accompanying the   is read with the  upon reading it in continuum with the word that follows it. When a noun with a female  has a tanween with a fath on the tanween, the word should be stopped on with a  saakinah and there is no alif substituted for the tanween.  This is found in such words as:    and .