Verse 1
(The Disjointed Letters)
"Alif. Lam. Mîm." There are four topics related to these. First Topic
The Qur'an's miraculousness and inimitability rise from the horizon of the Disjointed Letters, for it is a light manifested from the blending of the corruscating subtleties of eloquence (or rhetoric - al-balâgha). This topic contains many fine points, but whatever their tenuousness a true dawn breaks from their totality.
Firstly: "Alif'. Lâm. Mîm." together with the other Disjointed Letters at the start of some suras, their sisters, consist of half the letters in the alphabet, the basic elements of all words. That is, the Qur'an uses half the twenty-eight letters and disregards half. Ponder over this!
Secondly: The half its takes are more commonly used than those it leaves.
Thirdly: Of the letters it takes, the Qur'an repeats those easiest on the tongue, like Alif. and Lâm.
Fourthly: It mentions the Disjointed Letters at the start of twenty-nine suras, which corresponds to the number of letters of the alphabet.1
Fifthly: It takes half of those letters that have pairs, like the concealed (mahmûsa), the emphatic (majhûra), the stressed (shadîda), the soft (rakhwa), and the musta'liya, munhafida, and munfatiha letters, and the rest of them. Of those that have no pairs (awtâr), it takes fewer of the 'heavy' like the tremolo (qalqala), and more of the 'light,' like the labiolinguals (dhallâqa).
Sixthly: Those it uses of these are finer in character.
Seventhly: The way the Qur'an has chosen for [selecting] the Disjointed Letters is one out of five hundred and four possibilities, and this is the only possible way of halving the letters [of the alphabet] with their particular characters. For the divisions [into different groups of letters] are interwoven and one within the other, as well as being dissimilar. Each of these divisions is truly remarkable and singular. So if a person fails to appreciate the light of miraculousness born of the blending of these rays, he has only his own lack of discernment to blame.
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1If Hamza is counted, there are twenty-nine letters in the Arabic alphabet.
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