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Question

Asalam aleykum.

I have noticed that the recitation of warsh an naafi' has a lot of ahkaam of hamza. Could you please tell me about  ahkam hamza of riwayat warsh jazakumulaahu. wasalam aleykum

Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh.

There are sets of rules and sometimes two possible ways of recitation for different occurrences of the hamzah in the recitation of Warsh, too many to lay out in a question and answer.  We do plan to put the rules of Warsh and the other recitations up on the site, but cannot do it at this time.

We will give you the two most commonly encountered rules, and when Allah permits, the complete set of rules will be put up.

 The Single Hamzah

Warsh changes (makes of) the hamzah saakinah that is the first letter of the root of the word into a medd letter corresponding to the vowel on the letter preceding the hamzah.  This requires enough  knowledge of the Arabic language to derive a noun or conjugated verb into its root.  The word  has a hamzah saakinah.  The root of this word is  , with a hamzah as its first letter.  Warsh therefore changes the hamzah saakinah in the word  into a lengthened  (two vowel counts), and reads it as: .  All other words that have a hamzah saakinah which is the first letter of the root form of the verb will be read in the same way, with the hamzah saakinah changed into a corresponding medd letter.

Exception:  

If the word in question comes from  then there is no  for Warsh, such as in the words:  ,  , and  .  Again, these last three words are read with a regular hamzah saakinah and there is no changing of the hamzah into a medd letter.

Warsh also changes the hamzah with a  preceded by a dhammah into a  (with a  ) as in:   ,  , and  . These words then are read without a hamzah but instead with the letter  with a .  An example is that the word  is read as in the recitation of Warsh.

The three words:  ,  ,  and 


 
are read with  of the hamzah into a  saakinah in the recitation of Warsh.

 Transferring the vowel on the hamzah to the preceding saakin letter

When the last letter of a word is not a medd letter and is saakin, and the first letter of the next word is a ,  Warsh transfers the vowel of the hamzah to the saakin letter before it, and the hamzah is dropped in pronunciation. Examples of this are:   , , and    .

Included in this rule is the  or alif laam at-ta’reef, which is a different word than the noun it defines.  Examples are:  ,  , and , which would be read as: ,   ,  and .  The hamzah as stated before is dropped in pronunciation in these cases.

Wa iyyakum. Wa assalaam alaikum wa rahmatu Allah.