Huruf Muqatta'at (Disjointed Letters in the Qur'an): Difference between revisions

'''ḥurūf muqaṭṭaʿāt''' (حُرُوف مُقَطَّعَات), are mysterious letter combinations which occur at the beginning of 29 of the 114 chapters of the [[Qur'an]] and are present even in the earliest available Quranic manuscripts. Ḥurūf means letters and muqatta`āt literally means abbreviated or shortened. They are also known as '''Fawātih''' ({{lang|ar|فواتح}}) or openers as they form the opening verse of the respective chapters. The classical Muslim scholars considered the text of the Qur'an to be unchanged. Thus, they do not consider that the muqattā'at may [[Textual History of the Qur'an|possibly have been added after the prophet's lifetime]], and proposed a variety of possible meanings for the letters. Aided by additional observations, modern academic scholars have proposed interpretations in which the letters are an original feature of the surahs, as well as suggesting theories in which the letters were added after Muhammad's death. The Muqatta'at continue to be a topic of research and academic discussions in Islamic literature and Qur'anic studies.