بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
There are many surahs in the Qur’an which begin with what are seemingly random letters of the Arabic alphabet and do not seem to have any corresponding meaning to the surah. Why is this?
The exact meaning of these words, named “horoof muqata’at” is only known to Allah. There have been scholars in the past who have attempted to decipher the mysterious letters but nothing was confirmed. However, there are some interesting things to note about them.
First, we must understand that the prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) who was reciting the Qur’an to the people of Makkah was illiterate. The community around him (ﷺ) knew that he (ﷺ) did not study any form of literature. Many of the people around him (ﷺ) however, were very skilled in Arabic – they exchanged conversations in what is known as “shi’r”; a kind of poetic speech.
If one is illiterate, then one cannot possibly spell even letters. Think about it. If we could not read or write English, never seen or heard the letters individually, can only speak full words and sentences, we would not know the alphabet ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, etc.
Thus when he (ﷺ) came to them with letters being spelled out through speech, they knew it was not from him (ﷺ), right at the beginning of the surah. Then through the complexity of the Qur’an which was much more advanced than their way of speech, they knew the words were not of this world.
There are many other theories, but one that was mentioned was truly humbling – the fact that we do not know what the letters signify at all. We come to the Qur’an looking for guidance; guidance for things that we have no knowledge of. So Allah right from the start of the Qur’an begins with “aleef, lam, mim”, to let us know that we really do not have knowledge like Allah does.
It is in order to humble our hearts when we come to the book of Allah. If we came to the Qur’an with arrogance, assuming we as human beings know all, then we will not gain the benefits intended by it.
May Allah’s word humble all our hearts.
Allah knows best.