Commentary on Tafsir al-Jalalayn: (( Ha-Mim * 'Ayn-Sad-Qaf )) Allah knows best what He intends by them.

The Shaykh : These are five letters: Ha, Mim, 'Ayn, Sad, Qaf. Five letters, but they are alphabetic letters, meaning they are like Alif, Ba, Ta, Tha, Jim, Ha, Kha. These are Ha, Mim, 'Ayn, Sad, Qaf. It is not for us to speak about why Allah (Mighty and Majestic) chose these specific letters over others! This is not for us to decide, nor can we encompass this with knowledge. But we may ask: Do these letters have a meaning, or what? The author says: "Allah knows best what He intends by them". This implies that he affirmed that these letters have meanings, but they are not known. The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them), both the Salaf and the Khalaf, differed regarding these alphabetic letters with which some surahs begin: what is their meaning? Are they symbols, or names of the surahs they begin, or what? But when we apply this to what the evidence requires, we find that they are alphabetic letters with no meaning. The evidence is that there is nothing in the Qur'an that does not have a meaning known to all people. Because if it were possible that there is something in the Qur'an unknown to all people, this Qur'an would not be a clarification for people. The requirement of clarification is that there be nothing in it except what is known to all people or to some people. As for there being in it something that is not known to all people, this is impossible. And Allah the Exalted said: And He the Exalted said: And He the Exalted said: This includes both verbal clarification and conceptual clarification. So know that there is nothing in the Qur'an whose meaning people do not understand, absolutely. They must understand its meaning. So if something is found whose meaning is not known, it means that it has no meaning. This is one point.
Second, when we apply these letters to the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): and His saying the Exalted: We ask: What is the meaning of these letters in the language of the Arabs? They have no meaning. So the requirement of the Qur'an being in the clear Arabic language is that these letters have no meaning, because these letters have no meaning in the Arabic language. This is what Ibn Kathir (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted from the Imam of Mufassirs in his era, Mujahid ibn Jabr (may Allah have mercy on him), who took the interpretation of the Qur'an from 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas, who said: "Indeed, these alphabetic letters have no meaning". Do we affirm this or not? We affirm this. Do not be silent, but this is by reasoning from the Qur'an and reasoning from the state of the Qur'an. Reasoning from the Qur'an because it was revealed in the Arabic language, and these alphabetic letters have no meaning in the Arabic language. Reasoning from the state of the Qur'an that there is nothing in the Qur'an whose meaning all people do not know; there must be something known. And on this basis, we affirm that these letters themselves have no meaning. But then a problem arises for us: if we say they have no meaning, does their revelation and the speech of the Lord (Mighty and Majestic) with them become futile? And Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) does not do anything futile. So we say: It is not futile. They themselves have no meaning, but they have a purpose associated with the challenge. That is to say: You Arabs, you construct your speech from these letters, and the Qur'an did not come with a letter that you do not speak, rather it is all from the letters that you speak. And this is an example: Ha, Mim, 'Ayn, Sad, Qaf. And despite this, you were unable to bring forth anything like it. So in this there is a great purpose, which is that the Qur'an, which defeated you, O Arabs, even though you are the masters of eloquence, did it come with new letters such that you say: "By Allah, we do not know these letters," or is it from the letters that you pronounce? The answer is the second, and yet it defeated you. And this purpose, which the Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) and those before him and those after him affirmed, is indicated by the fact that you hardly find a surah beginning with these letters except that after them is mentioned the Noble Qur'an or mentioned what cannot be known except through revelation.
We look now: At the beginning of al-Baqarah, what comes after it? , In Al 'Imran: In Al-A'raf: And so on. There are only two or three surahs where this is not the case, but the reality of the matter is that what follows these letters cannot be known except through the way of revelation: We say in its interpretation: These are alphabetic letters with no meaning, but they have a good purpose.