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السلام عليكم ورحمة الله

Continuing from Qawaa’id fee al-Imlaa by Shaykh Uthaymeen رحمه الله there are four things that are pronounced but not written (i.e. you hear them, but won’t see them):

1. The alif in:
   • الله (Allah)
   • إله (ilaah [“deity”])
   • لكِن (laakin [“however”])
   • ثَلثمِائة (thalaathu mi’ah [“three hundred”])
   • ذا¹ when it’s the ل used for distance as in such ذلِكَ (dhaalika [“that’]), otherwise you will see it written as in ذاك
   • The ها used for alerting when connected to an اسم إشارة (demonstrative pronoun) that does not start with ت, as in هذا (haadha [“this”]).
     • If the pronoun starts with ت, you will see the ا, as in هاتانِ (haataani [“these two” for the feminine])
2. One of the two و’s in the words طاوس (Tawoos) and داود (Dawood)²
3. The ال that comes between two ل’s as in لِلَّهوِ
4. The ل in the اسم موصول (relative pronoun), that is singular or for the masculine pronoun, as in الّذِي (alladhi) and الَّذَيْنَ (alladheena).
   • In the dual or feminine plural, you do see the ل, as in اللّذانِ (alladhaani) and اللاتِي (allaatee)

Some extra points

• The ا in يا is not written when it comes before:
  • A name that starts with أ as in يأحمَد (“O Ahmad”)
  • أهل as in يأهلَ الكِتابِ (“O people of the Book”), أيّ as in يأيُّها الرَّجُل (“O man”), and أيَّة as in يأيّتُها النَّفَس المُطْمَئِنّة (“O tranquil soul”)
• There are some letters that are sometimes omitted in both pronunciation and writing as in:
  • The ا in the ما used for questioning if it is preceded by a something that puts it in jarr, as in فِيمَ (“In what?”), عَلامَ (“Upon what?”), حَتّامَ (“Until what?”)
  • The ا in أنا if ها comes before it and ذا for pointing comes after it, as in هأنذا (“Here I am”)

1. This is the ذا used for إشارة (pointing) as in ذلِكَ – ذلِكُم – ذلِكُما – ذلِكُنَّ ↩︎
2. In the Quranic script, you will see this reflected by a small و written after the first و ↩︎

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله

Continuing from Qawaa’id fee al-Imlaa by Shaykh Uthaymeen رحمه الله there are six things that are written yet not pronounced:

1. Hamzah al-wasl during continued speech (i.e. you are not starting your speech with a word that begins with it)
   • Except ابن and ابنَة if they are between two names in the same line (e.g. عُمَرُ بنُ الخَطّاب and فاطِمةُ بنَةُ مُحَمَّدٍ صلى الله عليه وسلم) –> The hamzah is not written in them
2. The ا in مِائَة (“one hundred”) and مِائتان (“two hundred”)
3. The ا after the واو الجماعة (the و of the plural) at the end of a verb (e.g. قالُوا)
4. The و in:
   • أولئك
   • أولُو
   • أولِي
   • أولات
5. The و in عَمْرو (e.g. عَمرُو بْنُ العاص)
   • If the word is in nasb with a tanwin, the و is not written, as in رَأَيتُ عَمرًا (“I saw Amr”)
6. حروف العِلّة (“Defective” letters ا – و – ي) if the letter after them has sukun, such as in سَعَى الفَتَى يَدعُو اللهَ)

Extra points of benefit

• Some reasons why unpronounced letters are written:
  • To differentiate between two kinds of words, such as the ا that differentiates the و of plurals from something else (e.g. يَدعُوْا vs. يَدْعُوْ)
  • To connect it to the pronunciation of a silent letter, as hamzah al-wasl is used
• Regarding مِائة: the ancient writers of Arabic used ا to differentiate it from مِنْه before dots were introduced, and the practice continued afterward.

Until next time, السلام عليكم

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السلام عليكم ورحمة الله,

Continuing from Shaykh Uthaymeen’s rahimahullah قواعد في الإلمى (Rules for Writing), we learn how to write تاء التأنيث (the ت used for the feminine tense).

1. It is written in its مَربُوطة (rounded) form (ة) in:
   • Broken plurals (e.g. قُضاة [“the judges”]
   • Singular feminine nouns (e.g. شَجَرة), except for بِنت (“daughter”) and أُخت (“sister”)
2. It is written in its مَفتُوحة (open) form (ت) in:
   • The فِعل (action), such as قامَتْ (“she stood”)
   • The جَمع المُؤنّثِ السالِم (sound feminine plural), such as مُسلِمات (“Muslim women”)
   • حُرُوف (particles), such as ثُمَّتْ رُبَّتْ لَعَلَّتْ لاتَ

Extra points of benefit

[Read more…] about Rules for writing the ت of feminization