Islam > Quran > Tajweed > Meeting of two sakinas
Updated on 04 October 2026 at 11:01 PM
📖 6 min readThe two sakinas meet either within a single word or across two words.
If they meet within a single word, this happens either only when stopping, or both in wasl (joining) and when stopping.
This meeting, taken on its own, is permitted, whether the first sakina is a madd letter, a leen letter or a true sakina.
Example of a madd letter: إِنَّ الأَبْرَارَ ¹, وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ ², الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ ³.
Example of a leen letter: فَلْيَعْبُدُوا رَبَّ هَذَا الْبَيْتِ ⁴, وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ ⁵.
Example of a true sakina: حَتَّى إِذَا فَشِلْتُمْ وَتَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ ⁶, رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا ⁷, أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا أَنَّ اللَّهَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ ⁸.
It is therefore permitted to stop on each of the preceding words in which the two sakinas meet in their own right. But if the word on which one stopped is joined to what follows it, the second sakina receives its original vowel; for it is an accidental sakina that exists only for the stop.
Their meeting in wasl and when stopping happens otherwise than taken on its own, whether within one word or across two words.
Within the single word, they meet both in wasl and when stopping as in: الصَّاخَّةُ ¹, أَتُحَاجُّونِّي ², آلآنَ at the two occurrences in Yunus ³, الم ⁴, and the like. One must then free oneself from the meeting of the two sakinas, by means of the Madd lengthened to six counts; for it is a madd letter followed by a permanent sakina in wasl as when stopping: that is the Madd Laazim.
Across two words, they meet only in the state of wasl, and one must then free oneself from it, as the rules of the Arabic language establish, either by dropping the first sakina or by vocalizing it.
The release by dropping takes place in a madd letter that is dropped in wasl and kept when stopping; it is a type of original Madd, as in إِذَا الشَّمْسُ كُوِّرَتْ ⁵, وإذْ قالُوا اللَّهُمَ ⁶, وَفِي السَّمَاءِ رِزْقُكُمْ ⁷. This dropping occurs in pronunciation only in the state of wasl; for the dropped letter, as a rule, remains in the mushaf's written rasm.
It also happens that the madd letter is dropped both in wasl and when stopping, because it is dropped in the script, as in رَبِّ أَرِنِي كَيْفَ تُحْيِي الْمَوْتَى in al-Baqarah ⁸: if we stop on تُحْي, we stop with the sakina on the yaa, which is the middle radical ('ayn) of the word, for the second yaa, which is the final radical (laam) of the word, is dropped in the script because of the meeting of the two sakinas.
As for the release of the two sakinas by vocalization, the readers sometimes differ and sometimes agree.
They differ when the first sakina ends the word and the second is found in a word that begins with a hamzat al-wasl carrying dhammah at its head, because of the obligatory dhammah of the third radical. Nafi', Ibn Kathir, Ibn 'Amir and al-Kisa'i then vocalize the first sakina with dhammah, following the dhammah of the third radical.
As for Hafs and those who follow his opinion among the other seven readers, they vocalize the first sakina with kasrah, in accordance with the original manner of releasing the meeting of the two sakinas. The first sakina is then one of the letters of "litnud" or the tanween ¹.
Example of the laam: قُلِ ادْعُوا اللَّهَ in al-Isra' ²: the laam of قُلْ is sakina, and it meets the daal of ادْعُوا, itself sakina; the laam is therefore vocalized with kasrah to free oneself from the meeting of the two sakinas.
Example of the taa: وَقَالَتِ اخْرُجْ عَلَيْهِنَّ in Yusuf ³, and there is no other in the Quran: the taa of the feminine in وَقَالَتْ is sakina, and it meets the khaa of اخْرُجْ, itself sakina; the taa is therefore vocalized with kasrah to free oneself from the meeting of the two sakinas.
Example of the noon: وَلَوْ أَنَّا كَتَبْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ أَنِ اقْتُلُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ in an-Nisa' ⁴: the noon of أَنْ is sakina, and it meets the qaaf, itself sakina; the noon is therefore vocalized with kasrah to free oneself from the meeting of the two sakinas.
Example of the waaw: it is found, for them, in three places, not a fourth:
The waaw of أو is sakina and meets the khaa, the daal or the noon, all sakina; the waaw is therefore vocalized with kasrah to free oneself from the meeting of the two sakinas.
Example of the daal: وَلَقَدِ اسْتُهْزِئَ بِرُسُلٍ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ in al-An'am ⁸, ar-Ra'd ⁹ and al-Anbiya' ¹⁰: the daal of قَدِ is sakina and meets the seen, itself sakina; it is vocalized with kasrah to free oneself from the meeting of the two sakinas.
Example of the tanween: وَلا يُظْلَمُونَ فَتِيلاً، انظُرْ in an-Nisa' ¹, بِرَحْمَةٍ ادْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ لا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْكُمْ in al-A'raf ²: the tanween is an additional sakina noon that meets the sakina noon and daal; it is vocalized with kasrah to free oneself from the meeting of the two sakinas.
The readers agree on what lies outside the conditions mentioned, as in وَيَسْأَلونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ قُلِ الرُّوحُ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّي in al-Isra' ³, أَنِ امْشُوا وَاصْبِرُوا عَلَى آلِهَتِكُمْ in Sad ⁴, فَارْجِعِ الْبَصَرَ هَلْ تَرَى مِنْ فُطُورٍ in al-Mulk ⁵, فَلْيَنْظُرِ الْإنْسَانُ مِمَّ خُلِقَ in at-Tariq ⁶.
All the readers agree on vocalizing the first sakina with kasrah in these examples and their likes.
It follows that Hafs recites all of the above, with its examples, vocalizing the first sakina with kasrah, in accordance with the original manner of releasing the meeting of the two sakinas.
He departs from this origin in certain places, vocalizing the first sakina with fathah or with dhammah.
The first: the preposition مِنْ, as in وَأَنَا عَلَى ذَلِكُمْ مِنَ الشَّاهِدِينَ in al-Anbiya' ⁷: the meem of "min" is a genitive particle, indeclinable on the sakina, but it was vocalized with fathah to free oneself from the meeting of the two sakinas without passing through kasrah, because of the heaviness of going from kasrah to fathah.
The second: the taa of the feminine, when it is annexed to the dual, as in كَانَتَا تَحْتَ عَبْدَيْنِ مِنْ عِبَادِنَا صَالِحَيْنِ in at-Tahrim ¹: the taa of the feminine is a letter indeclinable on the sakina, and the alif of the dual is sakina as well; the taa is therefore vocalized with fathah, for the alif only suits the fathah of what precedes it.
The third: الم، اللَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ, at the beginning of Al 'Imran: the meem is a letter of the alphabet indeclinable on the sakina, and it meets the laam of the Name of Majesty, sakina after the dropping of the hamzat al-wasl; the meem is therefore vocalized without passing through kasrah, to preserve the Tafkheem of the Name of Majesty.
The first: the leen waaw of the plural, as in فَتَمَنَّوُا الْمَوْتَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ in al-Baqarah ², and يَوْمَئِذٍ يَوَدُّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَعَصَوُا الرَّسُولَ لَوْ تُسَوَّى بِهِمُ الْأَرْضُ in an-Nisa' ³: the leen waaw there is a sakina letter preceded by fathah, but it is vocalized with dhammah to free oneself from the meeting of the two sakinas.
The second: the meem of the plural, as in وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ in an-Nahl ⁴, and ثُمَّ رَدَدْنَا لَكُمُ الْكَرَّةَ عَلَيْهِمْ in al-Isra' ⁵: the meem of the plural is a letter indeclinable on the sakina, and it meets the laam of the article, sakina after the dropping of the hamzat al-wasl; the meem is therefore vocalized with dhammah to free oneself from the meeting of the two sakinas, for dhammah is its original vowel ⁶.