Tafsir of Surat "Sad": The Meaning of His Saying: "Sad"

The Shaykh : As for what we intend to discuss regarding the verses of Allah that we heard in our prayer during our standing, it is His saying, the Exalted: First, His saying, the Exalted: We all know that Sad is a letter from the letters of the alphabet, is it not? The letters of the alphabet are Alif, Ba, Ta, Tha, and so on, which are known. If I said that they are thirty letters, what would you say? If I said that the letters of the alphabet are thirty letters, do you agree with this or not?
The student: No.

The Shaykh : Well, twenty-five letters?
The student: No.

The Shaykh : Do you not agree? Well, what do you agree on?
The student: Twenty-eight.

The Shaykh : It is twenty-eight letters; the entire Arabic language consists of twenty-eight letters. Sad is one of the letters of the alphabet. Does it have a meaning or not? Some scholars held that it has a meaning and that these letters of the alphabet at the beginnings of some surahs are symbols for meanings that they specified. Other scholars said that Allah knows best what He intended, meaning that it has a meaning but it is not known to us. Other scholars said it has no meaning; it has no meaning in itself. This last view was mentioned by Ibn Kathir from Mujahid (may Allah have mercy on him), and it is the closest to the truth that these letters of the alphabet in themselves have no meaning. What is the evidence? The evidence is that Allah, the Exalted, made the Qur'an in the Arabic tongue and these letters of the alphabet in the Arabic tongue have no meaning. And Allah, the Exalted, said: If that is the case, then if we return to the Arabic language, we find that these letters of the alphabet have no meaning. And this, as you see, is a strong statement and perfectly appropriate given that the Qur'an is Arabic. But there remains in the heart of the person, there remains in it a difficulty.