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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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The statement of some exegetes regarding the disjointed letters: "Allah knows best what He intended." Does this resemble the statement of the Mu'attilah?

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Question:
We say, Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, you mentioned (may Allah preserve you) that the Mu'attilah are those who say, "We entrust the meaning of this verse to Allah the Exalted." The question is: Does the statement of some scholars of the Sunnah that the meaning of the disjointed letters at the beginning of some surahs is that "Allah knows best what He intended by them," and that they were revealed for a great wisdom, resemble the statement of the Mu'attilah?

Answer:
These are letters, my brother; they are not words. These are letters, and a letter does not indicate anything. A single letter does not indicate anything; it must be in a compound sentence to convey meaning. A mere letter does not indicate anything. So, no one knows what Allah intends by them except Allah. We do not know, because it is not a sentence but a single letter. Therefore, they entrusted the matter to Allah.
And some, such as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, say that these disjointed letters came for the purpose of challenge. That is, Allah says to you: "The Qur'an is composed of these letters that you speak with, and yet you were unable to produce a single verse like it or a surah like it." So they are a reference to the challenge. These letters are a reference to the challenge.
Therefore, the mention of the Qur'an follows it, such as "That is the Book," "Those are the verses of the Book," "Ha-Mim," and "The Clear Book." The Qur'an is for remembrance
Qaf. By the honored Qur'an...ق وَالْقُرْآنِ الْمَجِيدِ
[Qaf 50:1]
.
(1) Ta, Ha. (2) We have not sent down to you the Qur'an that you be distressedطه مَا أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْقُرْآنَ لِتَشْقَىٰ
[Taha 20:1-2]
It is usually followed by a mention of the Qur'an, which is stronger evidence that it has a meaning, namely that it is for the challenge: that this Qur'an is composed of such letters as you pronounce, and you are unable to produce a surah like it. Allah knows best. Yes.
Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [153 -1024] قول بعض المفسرين في الحروف المقطعة: "الله أعلم بمراده" هل يشابه قول المفوضة؟ — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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