Jabir bin ‘abd-Allah bin Rabbah said:

Abu Yasir bin Akhtab was among a group of Jews and passed by the Messenger of Allāh and he was reciting Fatihah, Alif Lam Mim, This is the Book………

Then his brother Hayy bin Akhtab went to the Jews and said, “By Allah, I heard Muhammad recite what was revealed to him.

They said, “You heard this? He said, “Yes.” So he walked with this group to the Messenger of Allah and they said, “Did Jibril bring you this from Allah?

He said, “Yes. They said, “Allah has brought before you Prophets.

We only know a prophet by the extent of his reign. And what was the extent of his nation. One of them brought what was with him and said,

“Alif is one,
Lam is thirty 30 and
Mim is forty 40 and this is 71 years.
Do you wish to enter the religion of a Prophet when only the extent of his reign and the age of his nation are only 71 years?

Then he came to the Messenger of Allah (saw) and said, “O Muhammad, is there anything else besides this? He said, Yes!

He said, “What is it?

He recited Alif Lam Mim Sad.

He said, “This is more!

He said, “Alif is one, Lam is 30 thirty, Mim is 40 forty and Sad is 90 and this is 161 years.

He said, “O Muhammad is there more? He said,

“Yes! He said,

“What is it?

He said Alim Lam Ra. He said, “This is more!

He said, “Alif is one, Lam is 30 thirty and Ra is 200 two hundred which is 231 years.

He said, “O Muhammad is there more?

He said, “Yes! He said, “What is it?

He said Alim Lam Mim Ra. He said, “This is more!

He said, “Alif is one , Lam is thirty, Mim is 40 forty and 200 Ra is two hundred and this is 271 years.

They said, “We are confused about your matter,

O Muhammad, until we have absolutely no ideal what you’ve been given.”

Then they stood to leave and

Abu Yasir said to his brother and the rabbis with him,

“Perhaps it is not known to you because it is all for Muhammad, 71, 61, 100, 231, 271 is 734. and more that was not calculated” They said, “This is confusing to us.”

Three surahs are pre-fixed with only one letter:

(i)    Surah Sad chapter 38 with Sad
(ii)   Surah Qaf chapter 50 with Qaf
(iii)  Surah Nun or Qalam chapter 68 with Nun

b. The combination of two letters occurs in 10 surahs:

Three of them occur only once each:

(i) Surah Ta Ha chapter 20 has Ta Ha
(ii) Surah Al Naml starting with chapter 27 has Ta Seen
(iii) Surah Ya Seen chapter 36 has Ya Seen

Ha Meem occurs in seven consecutive Surahs from Surah 40 to Surah 46:

(i)    Surah Ghafir or Al-Mu’min chapter 40
(ii)   Surah Fussilat or Ha Meem chapter 41
(iii) Surah Al Shura chapter 42
(iv) Surah Al Zukhruf chapter 43
(v)   Surah Al Dukhan chapter 44
(vi) Surah Al Jathiyah chapter 45
(vii) Surah Al Ahqaf chapter 46

c. There are three combinations of three letters each occurring in 14 surahs.

Alif Laam Meem occurs in six surahs

(i) Surah Al Baqarah chapter 2

(ii) Surah Ali ‘Imran chapter 3
(iii) Surah Al ‘Ankabut chapter 29
(iv) Surah Al Rum chapter 30
(v) Surah Luqman chapter 31
(vi) Surah Al Sajdah chapter 32

Alif Laam Ra occurs in six consecutive surahs: Surah 10 to Surah 15:

(i)    Surah Yunus chapter 10
(ii)   Surah Hud chapter 11
(iii) Surah Yusuf chapter 12
(iv)  Surah Al Rad chapter 13
(v)   Surah Ibrahim chapter 14
(vi)  Surah Al Hijr chapter 15

***Ta Seen Meem* occurs in two *Surahs***:

(i) Surah Al-Shura chapter 26
(ii) Surah Al-Qasas chapter 28

d. Combination of four letters occurs twice:

(i) Surah Aaraf chapter 7: Alif Laam Meem Sad
(ii) Surah Anfal chapter 8: Alif Laam Meem Ra

e. Combination of five letters occurs twice:

(i) Surah Maryam chapter 19 begins with Kaf Ha Ya Ayn Sad
(ii) Surah Al-Shura chapter 42 begins with Ha Meem Ayn Seen Qaf

Surah Al-Shura chapter 42 has a double combination of abbreviated letters one set of two letters followed by one set of three letters.

[1] Means unless you are granted it from Allah.

[1] Hence, run to the cave? Allah knows best.

Unlock The Secrets of

The muqatta'at

Abjad Table PDF File

About one-quarter of the Quranic Surahs are preceded by mysterious letter-symbols called muqatta'at – disjointed letters or, occasionally, Fawatih – openings because they appear at the beginning of the relevant Surahs.

It is related that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq said:

في كل كتاب سر، وسره في القرآن فواتح القرآن

For every book there is a secret and all of its secrets are in the Qur`an in the

opening letters of the chapters.

Al-Hasan said, " The Quran has knowledge of everything

and the knowledge of the Quran is in the Huroof

which are the letters in the beginning of the chapters.

And Ibn Abbas said,

The beginning opening letters of the

chapters are taken from the names of Allāh.

Abu Aliyyah agreed and said:

There is not a letter except it is a

key for one of the names of Allah;

the Alif is the key for His name Allah, {see Abjad Table}

Lam for Latif,

Mim for Malik,

Sad for Sadiq,

Ra for Rabb,

Kaf for Karim,

Ta for Tayyib,

Sin for Sam'i,

Ha for Hamid,

Qaf for Qadir,

Nun for Nur,

Ha for Hadi,

'Ayn for Alim and

Ya for Yaqin.

And he quoted from Ibn Abbas:

Without a doubt, the opening of the chapters

using the huruf is Allah`s Greatest Name.

As-Sady said:

…When Allah wants to make someone and Wali, he teaches him from 'ilm ladduni, then he becomes a knowledgeable wali.

And he endows him from 99 names , with a name which opens it.

This is not open for the scholar by investigation or research.

Then He elevates him to the knowledge of internal and external meanings of the names.

The external is what is related to Allah.

Al-Yafi said in ad-Durr an-Nadhin:

Dhun-Nun said, "Allah's Greatness Name is the speed in which when asked by it, he is answered and it is seven letters. And in the Umm al-Qur'an (al-Fatihah), there are seven verses that consist of all the letters of the `alphabets` except seven letters;

fa , jim, shin, tha, thaw, kha and zay.

(al-Yafi continues):

For each of these letters is a specific day from the days of the weak, and a spiritual custodian and a special name for it.

Kha is for Sunday

and its custodian is the Angel Rawfa'il

and the special name for it is Khabir

Shin is for Monday

and its custodian is the Angel Jibr'il

with the special name for it is Shakir.

Zay is for Tuesday

and its custodian (servant) is Angel Samsama'il

and the special name for it is Zaki

thaw is for Wednesday and its custodian is Mika'il

and the special name for it is Tahir

Tha is for Thursday and its custodian is Sirfaya'il

and the special name for it is Thabit.

Jim is for Friday and its custodian is 'Anya'il

the the special name for it is Jabbar.

Fa is for Saturday and its custodian is 'Azra'il

and the special name for it is Fatir.

It is said that Allah's Greatest Name is contained therein these letters. In the book Manbah Usul al-Hikmah, that ash-Shaykh as-Sunusi used to make dua by it by saying:

By the right "Bi Haqq" : fa , jim, shin, tha, thaw, kha and zay.

As far as the Huroof that occurs in the beginning of the chapters, there are 29 which are:

ALif Lam Mim,

Alif Lam Ra,

Alif Lam Mim Sad,

Ha Mim,

Ha Mim Ayn Sin Qaf,

Kaf Haa Ya Ayn Sad,

Ya Seen

Ta Haa,

Ta Sin,

Qaf

and Nun.

Its singularities are:

Alif, Lam, Mim, Ha, Ra, Kaf, Ha, Ya, Ayn, Sin, Qaf, Sad, Ta and Nun.

Abu Talib al-Maliki said in his Provisions of the Hearts, Ali (ra) used to make the supplication:

O Kaf Ha Ya 'Ayn Sad, I seek refuge in you from the sins that constitutes wrath, or reverses blessing or removes protection or withholds the rain from falling or increases enemies against me. O Allah, help us against ourselves.

"You are the cave (from Kaf) of existence^[1], which all existence seeks refuge to,