Question

Assalamu Alaikum

Please help me:
I've noticed in copies of the Qur'an (like the 'Noble Qur'an' ones with translation of Qur'an in English next to the Arabic in them) there are some places where there is the word 'laa' written at the end of an Ayah and it is not in the ordinary Mus-haf. For example it is written at the end of the aayah numbers 75 & 76 of Surah Waqi'ah in one copy of the Noble Qur'an that I have. I understand that 'laa' means you mustn't stop...please tell me why there is this difference and which is the better to follow?
Jazakumullahu Khairun!

Answer

Wa alaikum Assalaam wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh.

The majority of the scholars rule that stopping on the end of aayaat is absolute sunnah, and we apply this ruling. The copies of the Qur’an following the majority ruling leave the end of the aayaat without any marking except for a few exceptions. 

There are those that do not accept this rule and instead categorize the stop at the end of aayah according to the four categories of stopping, or or  or  .  They therefore forbid stopping at the end of an aayah if it falls into the  or categories of the stop.  The  mark is placed at the end of these aayaat by those who follow this.  In the case of  , they allow stopping on the word, but require the reader to go back a few words to link the meaning and grammar with the previous phrase.

It seems that many of the English translations of the meaning of the Qur’an have used the markings of the minority school of thought in the aayaat.

Wa iyyakum.