Merging of the  saakinah and tanween (Part 3)

Exceptions to the rule of  (merging) 

The last two lessons (now located in the tidbit archives) described the merging of the  saakinah and tanween at the end of a word, with any of the letters of the group  at the beginning of the next following word.  The , or merging was further broken down into two sub-groups: 
1.  (idghaam without a ghunnah). 
2.  (Idghaam with a ghunnah).
The (idghaam without a ghunnah) was described as occurring when the  saakinah or tanween was at the end of a word and the first letter of the next word was either a or a .  The second sub-group,  (idghaam with a ghunnah) was determined to take place when the  saakinah or tanween was at the end of a word and the first letter of the next word was one of the letters of the group: . 

This lesson explains a few cases in the Glorious Qur’an when there is a  saakinah at the end of a word, and the next word starts with one of the letters of the group , but there is no  (merging), instead the  is recited clearly, or with an .

The first case is in aayah 27 of surah Al-Qiyaamah: .  The second word of this aayah ends with a  saakinah, and the first letter of the next word is a .  Under normal circumstances, there would be , or an idghaam without a ghunnah, since the  is one of the letters that cause an  when it follows a saakinah.  In this aayah though, there is a brief breathless pause, known in Arabic as a  between the word , and the next word: .  This short pause without a breath prevents the  saakinah of the word  from meeting with the  of the following word, .  There is therefore, no , or merging, of the  saakinah with the  here.  If you look at the aayah, you will see a small letter  above the word .  This indicates to the reciter that there is a . 

The next two examples involve the individual separate letters that start some different surahs.  These letters are read as if each letter is written out, for example in surah Al-Qalam, , the first letter , is recited just as you would read the word: .  This word  ends with a  saakinah.  If we were to join this individual letter, recited as the word  with the next following word, we notice that the next word starts with a .  Usually if there is a  saakinah followed by a , the  rule applies.  In this case, however, Hafs ‘an ‘Aasim by the way of Shatabiyyah, does not make an , but instead recites the  saakinah clearly, then recites the next word.  It is preferred and most common, to stop on the end of the individual letter , but continuing is allowed.  The same things said about this example can be said about the  saakinah at the end of the individual separate letter in the first two ayaat of surah Ya-Seen: .  The second separate letter of the first aayah is the letter  which ends with a  saakinah.  The first word of the second aayah  starts with the letter  (actually the first word is the letter ).  If we were to join the first and second aayah together, there would be a  saakinah (the last letter of the word ) meeting with the letter .  As the previous tidbit lesson stated, there normally would be , but as above Hafs ‘An ‘Aasim by the way of Shatibiyyah, does not make an idghaam when joining these two aayaat together; instead the  saakinah of the word  is recited clearly ( ), then the next word, the letter  is read with the accompanying vowel.

These are the exceptions to the idghaam rule for the  saakinah and tanween.  This ends the explanation of the  rule of the  saakinah and tanween.  The next tidbit, insha’ Allah, will explain the (changing) rule.