You mentioned that there is nothing in the Qur'an that no one among the scholars of the Ummah knows, or that people have agreed upon not knowing, so how do we answer regarding the disjointed letters at the beginnings of the surahs?

The questioner : The question says, O honorableThe Shaykh : It is difficult for me when you said that there is nothing in the Qur'an that no one among the scholars of the Ummah knows, or that people have agreed upon not knowing, so what do we answer regarding the disjointed letters, like Alif-Lam-Mim, Qaf, and Ya-Sin, and others where there is disagreement and difficulty for the scholars?

The Shaykh : Yes, we answer this by saying that there is absolutely no difficulty in this, because Allah the Exalted said: And it is known that these letters, without being combined into words, have no meaning. Qaf has no meaning, Sad has no meaning, Nun has no meaning, Alif-Lam-Mim has no meaning. So, by the nature of the Arabic language, they have no meaning. If an Arab man said to you "Qaf," meaning the letter of the alphabet, does it have a meaning? Answer me?
The students: It has no meaning.

The Shaykh : It has no meaning. If it has no meaning, and Allah Mighty and Majestic informed us that the Qur'an was revealed in a clear Arabic language, we know that they have no meaning. But in this case, a difficulty remains for us: how can there be in the Qur'an something that has no meaning? And the Qur'an is truth. We say: Yes, they have no meaning in themselves, but they have meaning in their purpose and significance. As if Allah Mighty and Majestic, when He says Qaf, Nun, Sad, and the like, is saying: This great Book that baffled you, O Arabs, did not come with new letters. The letters in it are the same letters from which you construct your speech, and yet it baffled you. For this reason, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said: "There is no surah beginning with these letters except that after them is mentioned the Qur'an or what is not known except by revelation". Do you understand the rule? We start from the beginning. Al-Baqarah: What is it? , In Surah Al-Imran: , In Al-A'raf: , In Yunus: , In Hud: , In Yusuf: , In Ibrahim: , and so on. It contains but it contains knowledge of the unseen, and knowledge of the unseen is not possible except by revelation. It does not contain a mention of the Qur'an, but it contains a mention of those who carried the faith, So these letters now, in themselves, have no meaning, but they have a great significance, purpose, and wisdom, which is: Where did this Qur'an that baffled you, O Arabs, come from? Did it come with new letters you do not know? Or with the letters from which you construct your speech? The second or the first? The second. And this is clear. And this has been narrated from Mujahid (may Allah have mercy on him), Mujahid ibn Jabir, who was the most knowledgeable of the Tabi'un in the interpretation of the Qur'an. Yes.