The
Saakinah rules (part one)
The
definite article
The
definition of the definite article
is:
It is an extra laam saakinah added to the basic makeup of the word. This noun is preceded by a hamzah al-wasl
(
) that is
read with a fat-hah when starting the word, dropped
when continuing from a previous word. This definite article
is
like the English word “the”.
The
noun that follows the definite article
maybe
a regular noun that stands on its own without the definite article (such as
or
), or it maybe
irregular in that it cannot be broken down further from the
(such as
). The
of the
definite article can precede a noun beginning with any of the Arabic
letters.
When
there is the definite article
preceding
a noun (it only enters nouns) there are only two possible rules for the
:
1.
2.
We
will now explain when each of these occurs.
The
clear pronunciation of the definite article
(
of
)
If
the definite article
precedes a noun beginning
with any of the fourteen letters in the group :
The
of
the definite article is said clearly or with
.
The
of the definite article is then
is called
.
Examples
of this are in the following two words:
The
saakinah
of the definite article is pronounce clearly in these words.
A reminder: the first letter of the word is a hamzah wasl, and it is
only used if we are starting on the word.
If we start a word that has the definite article
as
the second letter, we start on the hamzah al-wasl with a fat-hah.
The merging of
the definite article
( 
of
)
If
the
of
the definite article “the” precedes
any of the fourteen remaining letters of the Arabic alphabet, there is then
an 
(merging) of the
of
the definite article into the next letter.
The fourteen letters that
merges
into are:
.
As we know, when there is an
, the two letters
merge into one, and the letter that the two merge into acquires a shaddah
In this case then, the letter immediately following the
, will have a shaddah on
it. This
is called
.
Examples
of laam shamsiyyah are in the following two words:
In
the above cases, the
of
the definite article “the” is not pronounce at all, instead the reciter
proceeds from the letter before the
, which
will be the fat-hah on the hamzah al-wasl if started the word, or the last
letter and its accompanying vowel of the previous word if continuing, to the
letter immediately following the
.
This letter will have a shaddah on it, so will have two mechanisms of
formation: first, collision
(
)of the two articulating
parts for the saakin part of the shaddah, then separation
(
) of
the two articulating parts with the appropriate jaw and mouth movement for
the voweled part of the shaddah.
The
Glorious Name of Allah has a
shamsiyyah,
but it is an example of a word that cannot be broken down into a noun that
stands by itself without the added definite article
.
