Surah Yusuf — Study Session 3

Overview

The main topics covered in this session are:

Recap of the different types of ال (Al)
ال العهدية (Al-ʿAhdiyyah): The Al of Reference (Dhikriyyah, Hudūriyyah, Dhihniyyah)
ال الجنسية (Al-Jinsiyyah): The Al of Genus (Istighrāqiyyah, Badaliyyah)
ال الزائدة (Al-Zā'idah): The Extra/Redundant Al
Continuation of Āyah 1 explanatory notes

Part 1 — Recap: The Different Types of ال (Al)

"We have covered it before when we were doing the study of selections of the Glorious Quran."

1. ال العهدية (Al-ʿAhdiyyah) — The Al of Reference

Used when referring back to something. This is the al that makes a noun definite. It has three subcategories:

a) الذكرية (Al-Dhikriyyah) — Reference to Something Previously Mentioned

The thing has already been mentioned earlier in the speech.

Example:

"I bought a house… and the house is in a town… and the town is one of the most beautiful."

Here, "the house" refers back to the house already introduced, and "the town" refers back to the town already mentioned.

Quranic Example:

Pharaoh disobeyed the rasūl — meaning the specific rasūl who was sent to him, as mentioned earlier in the passage.

Quranic Example (Sūrah An-Nūr — the Light Verse):

"…a niche in which there is a lamp. The lamp is enclosed in a glass. The glass is like a pearly star…"

Each subsequent reference (the lamp, the glass) uses al because it points back to what was already introduced.

b) الحضورية (Al-Hudūriyyah) — Reference to Something Present

The thing being referred to is physically present in front of you.

Example:

"Give me the book" — said while pointing to a book right in front of you.

Grammatical note: The word mushīran (pointing) in such a sentence is mansūb because it functions as a hāl (state/circumstance) of the person speaking.

c) الذهنية (Al-Dhihniyyah) — A Mental Reference

The thing has not been mentioned before and is not physically present, but is understood from context.

Example:

A teacher of Arabic grammar says to his students: "Give me the notebooks."

No specific notebooks were mentioned before, and they may not be visible — but everyone understands he means his Arabic grammar notebooks, not notebooks for another subject.

Quranic Example (Opening of Sūrah Yūsuf):

"These are the āyāt of the Book, the clear Book."

"The Book" here is a mental reference — not previously named in this passage, not physically present, but understood by all to mean the Quran.

2. ال الجنسية (Al-Jinsiyyah) — The Al of Genus

This al refers to an entire genus or category of something. Importantly, it does not make the noun definite — it just refers to the whole type.

The word jins is related to the Latin genus (used in scientific taxonomy for classifying animals and plants into kingdoms, families, species, etc.).

Example: al-insān (الإنسان) — not referring to a specific person, but to humankind in general.

Al-Jinsiyyah is further divided into two subcategories:

a) الاستغراقية (Al-Istighrāqiyyah) — Total/Exhaustive Coverage

From the root gharaqa (to drown/be submerged) — meaning the al "covers" every single member of the genus without exception.

Quranic Example:

"Indeed, mankind was created weak." — This is true of every single human being, with no exceptions, because it is a statement from Allah.

b) البدلية (Al-Badaliyyah) — General/Typical Statement

Used for generally true statements that may have exceptions. This is where scholars most often differ in categorisation.

English parallel:

"Men are stronger than women."

This is a general truth, but not absolutely true of every individual. So it cannot be istighrāqiyyah.

Quranic Example:

"Men are the caretakers/maintainers of women." — This could be argued as istighrāqiyyah (since it is a divine statement) or badaliyyah. Scholars differ.

Teacher's note: "You will find lots of differences of opinion when it comes to categorising nouns into these two sub-categories. Don't feel worried if you can't always tell them apart."

3. ال الزائدة (Al-Zā'idah) — The Extra/Redundant Al

Zā'id means extra or redundant. Critical rule:

Al-zā'idah is only grammatically extra — never extra in meaning.

If you remove it, the sentence remains grammatically correct. But rhetorically, it always adds something — this is where balāgha (rhetoric/eloquence) begins where grammar ends. Grammar says both forms are valid; balāgha tells you why one was chosen over the other.

Quranic Example:

"Hal min mazīd?" — "Are there any more?" (the question Jahannam is asked on the Day of Judgement, Sūrah Qāf)

The min here is zā'id grammatically — remove it and the sentence is still correct. But min changes mazīd from being marfūʿ (nominative) to majrūr (genitive). This is expressed as:

مجرور لفظاً، مرفوع محلاً (majrūr lafẓan, marfūʿ mahalan) — genitive in form, nominative in position.

Contextual note on Jahannam: Narrations from hadith describe Jahannam as so packed that people are stacked upon one another — yet Jahannam will still ask for more. May Allah protect us all.

Example of Al-Zā'idah with Proper Names:

The name ʿAbbās (عباس):

Root: ʿabasa (عبس) — to frown
Pattern: faʿʿāl (فعّال) — a hyperbolic/intensive form indicating habitual or profession-level action
- khabbāz (خبّاز) — a professional baker (not just someone who baked once)
- hallāq (حلّاق) — a barber by profession
- ʿabbās — one who frowns constantly
Lions were given this name because they frown a lot

Another form from the same root: ʿabūs (عبوس), on the pattern fuʿūl — meaning something that causes frowning (a terrifying thing/day).

Quranic Example of ʿabūs:

"Indeed, we fear from our Lord a Day that is frowning and distressful" — Sūrah Al-Insān, Āyah 10

When a name like ʿAbbās (originally an adjective) is used again as a descriptive adjective rather than a proper name, al is placed in front: Al-ʿAbbās — "the frowner." This al is zā'idah — it does not make the noun definite.

Summary: Which Al Makes Things Definite?

Type	Makes Definite?
ال العهدية (Al-ʿAhdiyyah)	✅ Yes
ال الجنسية (Al-Jinsiyyah)	❌ No
ال الزائدة (Al-Zā'idah)	❌ No

Part 2 — Application to the Book: Sūrah Yūsuf, Āyah 1

The Al in Al-Kitāb (الكتاب)

"These are the āyāt of the Book, the clear Book."

The al in al-kitāb here is ال العهدية الذهنية — it is a mental/contextual reference. The Book has not been previously mentioned in this sūrah, it is not physically present, but it is understood in every listener's mind to mean the Quran.

Teacher's note: "I feel like al-samāwāt (the heavens) and al-arḍ (the earth) in other verses follow the same principle — purely mental references that we simply understand from context."

Part 3 — Introduction to المقطعات (Al-Muqattaʿāt) — The Disjointed Letters

What Are the Muqattaʿāt?

The Muqattaʿāt (المقطعات) — also called Hurūf Muqattaʿah or Hurūf al-Awā'il — are the isolated letters appearing at the beginnings of certain sūrahs. Examples: الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm), يس (Yā-Sīn), ق (Qāf).

Etymology of muqattaʿāt:

Root: قطع (qataʿa) — to cut
Form II (faʿʿala) — adds intensity or repetition: "to cut repeatedly/separately"
They are called muqattaʿāt because the letters are read separately — we say "Alif, Lām, Mīm" not blending them into one word

Form II reminder — two main functions:

Intensification / repetition of the action
Making a verb transitive — e.g.:
- ʿalima (علم) — to know (intransitive)
- ʿallama (علّم) — to teach / to make someone know (transitive)

Later in Sūrah Yūsuf, when the wife of the ʿAzīz ghallaqat al-abwāb (closed the doors), form II is used — not because she slammed one door intensely, but because she closed all the doors one by one: repetition of action across multiple objects.

The 14 Letters and Their Occurrence

There are 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet. Exactly half — 14 letters — appear as Muqattaʿāt across the Quran.

An interesting observation: Where there are pairs of similar letters (dotted and undotted), only the undotted versions appear as Muqattaʿāt.

These 14 letters have been collected by classical scholars into a memorisation phrase (useful for memorisation, not a meaningful sentence).

They appear in a total of 29 sūrahs.

Classification by Number of Letters

Composition	Examples	Number of Sūrahs
Single letter (1)	ق، ن، ص	3 sūrahs
Two letters (2)	طه، حم (and variants)، طس	10 sūrahs
Three letters (3)	الم، الر، طسم	13 sūrahs
Four letters (4)	المص، المر	2 sūrahs
Five letters (5)	كهيعص، حمعسق	1 sūrah each

Note on the Ḥawāmīm (حواميم): The sūrahs beginning with Ḥā-Mīm (حم) are collectively known as Al-Ḥawāmīm.

Do the Muqattaʿāt Form Their Own Āyah?

General rule: The Muqattaʿāt stand alone as their own āyah at the beginning of their sūrah.

Exceptions — two cases where they do NOT stand alone:

Single-lettered Muqattaʿāt (ق، ن، ص): These are part of a longer āyah, not a standalone one.
- Nūn. By the pen… — Nūn is part of that āyah
- Qāf. By the honoured Quran… — similarly part of the āyah
- Any composition containing the letter Rā (ر): These also do not stand alone.
- Example: Alif-Lām-Rā (الر) in Sūrahs Yūnus, Hūd, Yūsuf, Ibrāhīm, Al-Ḥijr
- This exception applies to 6 sūrahs

Part 4 — The Challenge of the Quran (Iʿjāz al-Qur'ān)

The Wisdom Behind Mentioning the Muqattaʿāt

The commentary (Tafsīr Muyassar / Dr. ʿAbd al-Rahīm) offers this explanation:

The Quran is composed of the same Arabic letters the Arabs used every day. It is not a heavenly language inaccessible to humans — it is in your language, using your letters. The challenge (taḥaddī) is therefore: bring something like it, using these very same letters.

Key vocabulary:

Taḥaddī (تحدّي) — challenge
ʿAjaza / Aʿjaza — to be unable to meet a challenge; to render powerless (also found in Urdu: āja denā)
Muʿjizah (معجزة) — a prophetic miracle: something presented as a challenge that no one can replicate

Nuance: What counts as a Muʿjizah?

Many scholars hold that the Prophet's ﷺ muʿjizah is specifically the Quran — because it alone was presented as a formal challenge:

"Bring a sūrah like it. Bring ten āyāt like it."

Other supernatural events — the splitting of the moon, a single bowl of milk feeding an army — were not presented as challenges. Hence many scholars classify only the Quran as his muʿjizah in the technical sense.

The Arabs were afṣaḥ al-nās — the most eloquent of all people (ism tafḍīl / superlative form: followed by a genitive, not preceded by min which would make it comparative). Yet they could not produce anything like the Quran. Their very inability (ʿajz) is itself a proof that the Quran is the waḥy of Allah.

Grammatical analysis of the key sentence in the commentary:

"Their inability — although they were the most eloquent of the people — points to the fact that the Quran is the waḥy of Allah."

Dalla (دلّ) — the main verb: "to point to / indicate"
Fāʿil (subject) of dalla: ʿajz al-ʿarab — the inability of the Arabs
The parenthetical clause ("although they were the most eloquent") is additional information; it does not change the grammatical subject

Teacher's encouragement: "Whenever you see a verb, immediately ask: where is the fāʿil? A fāʿil can be explicit or implicit. This analysis should become almost subconscious."

Part 5 — Numbers Practice: The 29 Sūrahs with Muqattaʿāt

This section of the book provides excellent Arabic numbers practice.

Key grammar rule for numbers 11–99 (excluding multiples of 10):

The maʿdūd (counted noun) is:

Singular in form
Mansūb (accusative) — functioning as a tamyīz (specification/distinguisher)

Example: Tisʿun wa ʿishrūna sūratan — "29 sūrahs": sūratan is singular and mansūb.

Summary of maʿdūd rules by number range:

Number Range	Maʿdūd Form
1–2	Their own rules
3–9	Plural, opposite gender to number
Multiples of 10	Their own rules
11–99 (excl. multiples of 10)	Singular, mansūb (tamyīz)
100, 1000+	Their own rules

Part 6 — The Three Sūrahs Where Allah Takes an Oath by the Name "Quran"

A remarkable observation from studying the list of sūrahs with Muqattaʿāt:

Allah takes oaths by many things in the Quran. He references the scripture in oaths using terms like al-Kitāb al-Mubīn. But there are only three sūrahs where Allah takes an oath using the word Qur'ān (القرآن) by name:

Sūrah	Muqattaʿāt	Jawāb al-Qasam Stated?
Sūrah Yā-Sīn (يس)	يس — 2 letters	✅ Yes: "Innaka la-mina al-mursalīn"
Sūrah Sād (ص)	ص — 1 letter	❌ No — omitted
Sūrah Qāf (ق)	ق — 1 letter	❌ No — omitted

The pattern:

The sūrah with two Muqattaʿāt letters (Yā-Sīn) states its jawāb al-qasam
The sūrahs with one Muqattaʿ letter (Sād, Qāf) omit their jawāb al-qasam

The insight:

When we want to recover the missing jawāb al-qasam in Sūrah Sād or Sūrah Qāf, Sūrah Yā-Sīn provides the answer — since all three share the same oath by the Quran, and Yā-Sīn makes it explicit.

This is a practical application of the great principle:

"Al-Qur'ān yufassiru baʿduhu baʿḍan" — One part of the Quran explains another part of the Quran.

Teacher's reflection: "This is something we need to train our minds towards — making connections between one part of the Quran and another. The Hurūf Muqattaʿāt are an interesting kind of mystery. Scholars have spent their lives on such connections and found deeply beneficial insights. Who knows — perhaps we will too."

Part 7 — Etymology: الوارد (Al-Wārid) and the Word Wird

The verb used for the occurrence of Muqattaʿāt in sūrahs:

"Warada fī hādhihi al-suwar" — It has come / occurred in these sūrahs.

Root: ورد (warada) — to come, to arrive
Classical usage: going to a watering hole (wird / mawrid) to collect water — a journey made repeatedly
From this comes the sense of regular recurrence: a wird is something recited as a daily practice — returning to it again and again, like returning to the watering hole

Arabic words for "coming" — and their distinctions:

Arabic has multiple verbs meaning "to come," each with subtle differences:

Word	Root	Nuance
جاء (jā'a)	ج-ي-ء	General coming
أتى (atā)	أ-ت-ي	Coming with ease or fulfilment
ورد (warada)	و-ر-د	Coming repeatedly to a known source

"In Arabic, no two words are exactly the same."

Digression 1 — On the Fitrah and the Inner Covenant

[Prompted by the discussion of Quran as a "reminder" (dhikr)]

Dhikr vs. ʿIlm:

ʿIlm — learning something entirely new
Dhikr — recalling something already known but forgotten

The Quran calls itself a dhikr (reminder) — implying that knowledge of Allah, of truth, and of righteousness is already baked into us from before birth, from the Day of ʿAlastu (Yawm al-Mīthāq), when all souls testified that Allah is their Lord.

A child's sharp question:

"How can we be held accountable for a promise we no longer remember making?"

The answer through fitrah (innate nature):

Even someone raised with no exposure to Islam will recognise that murder, theft, betrayal, and injustice are wrong — and that truth, justice, and compassion are right. This is not learned; it is innate.

Animals feel no such moral weight. A hyena stealing food from another animal feels no guilt. Only humans carry this moral sense — and that is the trace of the covenant.

Philosopher Immanuel Kant: Kant — sometimes called the father of modern philosophy — wrote one book systematically dismantling every logical proof for the existence of God. Having (technically) exhausted the logical arguments, he wrote a second book. Its essential insight was captured in a single line:

"The proof of the presence of God can be found in the starry heavens above and the moral fiber within you."

Digression 2 — On AI Tools for Quranic Study

The teacher mentioned a project in progress:

"I am feeding all of our session videos into one of these AI models and asking it to create an interlinked document — so everything we have discussed will be in written form, with a table of contents and cross-references. Anytime you want to revise, you can find the topic, read about it, or go directly to the relevant part of the video. I think that will be a really good reference resource for us."

Students who are interested in learning how to use AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.) for study can request a separate session on this topic.

Session Notes & Announcements

Session ended before reaching Āyah 2 — will continue next session.
Two-week gap before the next class: students are encouraged to read ahead in the book, attempt to parse sentences independently, and come with questions.
New students: please ask freely. "There is no shame in asking. Please keep asking until you are 100% sure."
Pacing note: The teacher moves faster on topics previously covered, and slower on areas where students have difficulty. New students should flag if anything is unclear.

— End of Session 3 Notes —