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:
- 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
- The ا in مِائَة (“one hundred”) and مِائتان (“two hundred”)
- The ا after the واو الجماعة (the و of the plural) at the end of a verb (e.g. قالُوا)
- The و in:
- أولئك
- أولُو
- أولِي
- أولات
- 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”)
- 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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