Internal Rhymes as Evidence for Old Hijazi

Internal Rhymes as an Evidence for Old Hijazi

Old Hijazi has two hallmarks that distinguishes it from classical Arabic and the Quranic reading traditions: The loss of Hamzah (glottal stop) and the loss of nunation and final short vowels except in construct. In classical Arabic, final short vowels and nunation are only lost when the word is in a pausal position, i.e., when the word is at the end of utterance. This would mean that unlike classical Arabic, the original language of the Quran entirely lacked nunation and final short vowels except in construct. This means that the last word in a sentence always lacks nunation and a final short vowel while the words before it don’t lack them. A careful examination of the Quran reveals that if all words were treated in the same way as the words in pausal positions are treated, this would lead to the appearance of hundreds of hitherto unknown internal rhymes.

The Grammar of Pausal positions

A pausal position means the word at the end of an utterance such as the last word of a sentence or the last word uttered before pausing to take a breath. When a word is at a pausal position, it receives a special treatment in Classical Arabic: Neither a final short vowel nor nunation can be attached to the word. For example: هذا كتابٌ جديد hādhā kitābun jadīd (This is a new book) In this example, the final short vowel ‘u’ and nunation (n) are added to the word kitāb (book) making it “kitābun”. Grammatically, the word “jadīd” (new) should also receive the same “un”, but since that the word “jadīd” is at the end of the sentence, “un” is not added, which leaves the word in its original form: jadīd. If the sentence was just “This is a book”, then the final “un” will not be added to the word kitāb (book) because the word here is at a pausal position (the end of the sentence): hādhā kitāb. This is a book.

Special Pausal forms

The dropping of final short vowels and nunation isn’t the only effect of pausal positions. Other effects include: 1-The feminine ending “ah” doesn’t change to “at”. Most of Arabic singular feminine nouns and adjectives end with “ah”. As in: madrasah (school). But when anything gets attached to the end of these words, the final ‘ah’ turns into ‘at’. As in: madrasatī (my school). Final short vowels also cause the same effect: al-madrasatu jadīdah. The school is new. The word madrasah is the subject of this sentence so it received a final ‘u’ vowel. And since a short ‘u’ vowel was attached to the end of the word, the feminine ‘ah’ of “madrasah” turns into ‘at’: madrasatu. It’s a mistake for the word to be become “madrasahu”. The feminine adjective jadīdah (new) is describing the word “madrasatu” so the word “jadīdah” should also receive the same final short vowel ‘u’ that the word “madrasah” received. But since that the word jadīdah is at the end of the sentence, it didn’t receive a final short vowel. And since that nothing was attached to the word, the feminine ‘ah’ didn’t change to ‘at’ so the word remained in its original form: Jadīdah. In the following example, the word jadīdah is not at the end of a sentence so it received a final short vowel which turned the feminine ‘ah’ into ‘at’: al-madrasatu l-jadīdatu kabīrah. The new school is big.

Another effect of pausal positions include: 2- The “an” marker for the indefinite accusative becomes a long ‘a’ vowel. For example: إشتريت كتاباً جديدا ishtaraytu kitāban jadīdā. I bought a new a book. The word Kitāb is the object of the sentence so it received a final ‘a’ vowel. The word is also indefinite so it also received an ‘n’. The word “jadīd” describes the word “kitaban” so it should also receive the same final “an”. But since that the word is at the end of the sentence, the “an” is turned into a long ‘a’ vowel: jadīdā.

3- The dropping of the vowel of the third person masculine singular pronoun. This final pronoun has four possible forms: hū, hu, hī or hi. But in pausal positions, this pronoun becomes a mere h. For example: Kitābuhū jadīd. His book is new. Kitābuhū (his book) has the final pronoun (his) as hū. But in a pausal position, this pronoun loses its vowel and becomes a mere ‘h’: هذا كتابه Hādhā kitābuh. This is his book.

Pausal positions in the Quran

Quranic recitation rules (Tajwīdتجويد ), as set out by Muslim scholars, state that during recitation one should avoid pausing at a non-pausal position except when the reciters runs out of air and needs to take a breath. To aid the reciter with this, modern prints of the Quran include signs that show where it’s possible to pause in the middle of a verse. The position of such a sign in a verse is determined based on the meaning and the grammar of the verse. For example, the following verse has four mid-verse pausal signs. You can notice that the pausal positions fit the meaning and context: Q3:20 So if they argue with you, say, "I have submitted myself to Allah [in Islam], and [so have] those who follow me." (Pausal position) And say to those who were given the Scripture and [to] the unlearned, "Have you submitted yourselves?" (Pausal position) And if they submit [in Islam], they are rightly guided;(Pausal position) but if they turn away - then upon you is only the [duty of] notification. (Pausal position) And Allah is Seeing of [His] servants.

The pausal form as a spelling rule

There’s a mismatch between Arabic spelling and classical Arabic pronunciation. For example: al-madrasatu jadīdah (The school is new) المدرسةُ جديدةُ In Arabic, this sentence is spelled as if it were pronounced as al-Madrasah jadīdah. Meaning that the feminine ending of the word “madrasah” is written as an ‘h’ and not a ‘t’. If it was spelled with a ‘t’ then the sentence would be spelled like this: المدرست جديدة

Another example: kitābuhū jadīd. (His book is new) كتابه جديد It’s spelled as it if were pronounced as Kitābuh jadīd. The final long ‘u’ vowel after the ‘h’ isn’t spelled. If it was, then the sentence would look like this: كتابهو جديد

hādhā kitābun jadīd (this is a new book) هذا كتاب جديد The word Kitābun is spelled as if it were pronounced as kitāb. The final short ‘u’ vowel cannot be spelled as Arabic doesn’t write short vowels. But the final ‘n’ can be written, yet nunation is never written in Arabic. If it was, then the sentence would look like this: هذا كتابن جديد

The final example for the mismatch between Arabic spelling and classical Arabic pronunciation is: qaraʾtu kitāban jadīdā. (I have read a new book) قرأت كتابا جديدا The word kitāban is spelled as if it were pronounced as kitābā. The “an” marker for the indefinite accusative is spelled as a long ‘a’ vowel (ā).

Arab grammarians tried to explain the mismatch between spelling and classical pronunciation by saying that every Arabic word is spelled as if the word was the first to be uttered and the last to be uttered. (rasm al-miṣḥaf by Ghanim Qadduri, p.67). This rule explains why the alef of the definite article is always spelled although it’s only pronounced when it’s in the beginning of utterance. It also explains all the previous mismatch examples: al-madrasatu jadīdah (The school is new) المدرسة جديدة In a pausal position, the feminine ending ‘h’ doesn’t turn into a ‘t’. The word “al-madrasatu” is not in a pausal position. But since that the rule says that every word must be written as if it was in a pausal position, the word al-madrasatu is spelled in Arabic as “al-madrasah” because that’s the pausal pronunciation. hādhā kitābun jadīd (This is a new book) هذا كتابٌ جديد Words in pausal positions don’t take nunation. So nunation is never spelled in any nunated word. That’s why the word kitābun is spelled in Arabic as “kitāb” although the word in the sentence isn’t in a pausal position. qaraʾtu kitāban jadīdā. (I have read a new book) قرأت كتاباً جديدا In a pausal position, the “an” marker for the indefinite accusative is pronounced as a long ‘a’ vowel. That’s why the “an” turned into a long ‘a’ vowel in the word “jadīdā” because the word is at the end of the sentence. The Arabic spelling of the word jadīdā matches its pronunciation. But the word kitāban is spelled as if it was in a pausal position: kitābā. Its pronunciation doesn’t match its Arabic spelling.

Historical linguist Marijn Van Putten says: ((While such a ‘pausal’ spelling convention is, of course, not impossible, such a spelling convention is – to our knowledge – unique among the languages of the world. Despite this, very few scholars have attempted to explain the origins of themechanics of Arabic pausal spelling and rather just cite it as a given fact. The few authors that comment on it (e.g. Rabin 1951: 26; Blau 1977: 12) often explain the pausal spelling as the result of authors writing very slowly, while sounding out each word individually.)) Case in the Quranic Consonantal Text, p.7 ((The idea is that, as words were sounded out one-by-one in isolation before being committed to writing, they would take on their pausal form and be pelled as such, which eventually became conventionalised into the pausal spelling (Nöldeke et al. 2013: 408; Blau 1977:12).18 This of course presupposes that the language of the Qurˀān did have full case inflection and would only lose nunation and its case vowels in pause)) p.14

Van Putten challenges the pausal convention by two arguments: 1- The treatment of the final ī in the Quran is usually lost in pause, yet it’s kept in context. This means that the spelling of the Quran isn’t based on the pausal rule. Otherwise, the treatment of the final ī wouldn’t have changed between pausal and non-pausal positions. (p.14) 2- Internal rhymes in the Quran that only show up if every word was pronounced in the pausal form. Which means that what was thought to be a special treatment for the pronunciation of pausal words was actually the norm for almost all words in the original language of the Quran. The mismatch between the Quranic spelling and the Classical Arabic pronunciation is the result of imposing classical Arabic on a text that wasn’t written in Classical Arabic. The Quran was written in a language that Van Putten and Ahmad Al-Jallad call “Old Hijazi”. Based on these internal rhymes, Old Hijazi had the following features that sets it apart from classical Arabic (Marijn Van Putten, Case in the Quranic Consonantal Text, p.13) :

1- Lack of nunation. 2- Lack of final short vowels except in construct. 3- The feminine ending is always “ah” and it only turns to “at” in construct. 4- The indefinite accusative marker is always a long ‘a’ vowel. 5- The third person masculine singular pronoun is always a mere ‘h’ with no vowel attached to it. (This feature is based on internal rhymes in the Quran and Hadith that were discovered by the wikiislam team)

Internal rhymes in the Quran

In the Quran, the last word of nearly every verse rhymes with the last words of the surrounding verses. Sometimes within the same verse, words in pausal positions rhyme with each other. But there are many cases where a word that’s in context (i.e., not in a pausal position) does rhyme with another word that’s either in a pausal position or in context. This type of rhyming was never noted by Muslim scholars despite the presence of obvious examples such as: ﴿وَأَنَّهُ هُوَ أَغْنَى وَأَقْنَى﴾ [النجم: 48] Q53:48 ʾaghnā wa ʾaqnā. In Old Hijazi: aghnē wa aqnē.

﴿لَوْ أَنْزَلْنَا هَذَا الْقُرْآنَ عَلَى جَبَلٍ لَرَأَيْتَهُ خَاشِعًا مُتَصَدِّعًا مِنْ خَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ ﴾ [الحشر: 21] Q59:21 khāshiʕan mutaṣaddiʕan. (The two words are in context) In Old Hijazi: khāshiʕā mutaṣaddiʕā.

﴿وَالصَّابِرِينَ فِي ‌الْبَأْسَاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ وَحِينَ الْبَأْسِ﴾ البقرة/177 “al-baʾsāʾi wal-ḍarrāʾi” was used three times: Q2:177, 6:42, 7:94. And used once in the nominative Q2:214 “al-baʾsāʾu wal-ḍarrāʾu”. In all these 4 instances the two words were in context. In Old Hijazi, the two words in the four instances are pronounced: ǝl-baʾsāʾ wal-ḍarrāʾ.

The previous examples were internal rhymes that appear both in a classical Arabic pronunciation and in an Old Hijazi pronunciation. But when the Quran is read in Old Hijazi, hundreds of internal rhymes appear, which means that imposing classical Arabic on the Quran has led to the loss of hundreds of internal rhymes.

Old Hijazi internal rhymes

In 2014, Pierre Larcher was the first to note this sort of internal rhymes in the Quran. He provided two examples. One of them is verse Q96:16 (Case in the Quranic Consonantal Text, p.12) ﴿‌نَاصِيَةٍ كَاذِبَةٍ خَاطِئَةٍ ۝﴾ “A lying, sinning forelock.” Classical Arabic pronunciation: nāṣiyatin kādhibatin khāṭiʾah. The verse consists of three feminine indefinite words that are in the genitive case so all of them should take the suffix “in”. And since that a suffix is added to a feminine word, the feminine “ah” is turned into “at”: nāṣiyah => nāṣiyatin kādhibah => kādhibatin As for the last word of the verse, it didn’t take the “in” suffix because the word is at a pausal position, and thus the word stayed in its original form: khāṭiʾah (instead of becoming khāṭiʾatin). The three words are spelled in the Quran as: nāṣiyah kādhibah khāṭiyah. Arab grammarians claim that this spelling is the result of the rule that every word is spelled in its pausal form. But what if these words were pronounced the same way they were spelled? In other words, what if each of these words was pronounced in the pausal form? The result is that the three words would rhyme with each other: nāṣiyah kādhibah khāṭiyah. The internal rhyme is clear as all of the three words follow the same scheme: Consonant + ā + consonant + i + consonant + ah

Marijn Van Putten discovered a few more internal rhymes, including this general scheme: ((the epithets of Allah which generally form verse-final internal rhymes in the shape CaC(ī/ū)C in pairs of two, e.g. Q2:173, 182, 192 ġafūrun raḥīm /ġafūr raḥīm/ ‘forgiving, merciful’ Q4:26; Q8:71; Q9:15 ˁalīmun ḥakīm /ˁalīm ḥakīm/ ‘knowing, wise’ Q64:18 al-ˁazīzu l-ḥakīm /al-ˁazīz al-ḥakīm/ ‘the powerful, the wise’ Q35:30, 34; 42:23 ġafūrun šakūr /ġafūr šakūr/ ‘forgiving, appreciative)) p.13

Based on the evidence of internal rhymes in the Quran, Van Putten concludes that the original language of the Quran had the following features that sets it apart from classical Arabic (Case in the Quranic Consonantal Text, p.13) : 1- Lack of nunation. 2- Lack of final short vowels except in construct. 3- The feminine ending is always “ah” and it only turns to “at” in construct. 4- The indefinite accusative marker is always a long ‘a’ vowel. 5- The third person masculine singular pronoun is always a mere ‘h’ with no vowel attached to it.

More Old Hijazi internal rhymes in the Quran

There are huge number of Old Hijazi internal rhymes that can be found outside of the above mentioned rhymes (link). These internal rhymes can be classified into two categories: 1- Individual instances. 2- Verse-final attributes of Allah, which were already noted by Van Putten but without laying out every unique case of them. There are 32 unique Old Hijazi internal rhymes of this type, 284 with repetition.

Special Old Hijazi Internal Rhymes

Among the internal rhymes in the Quran, there are cases that shows an unusual word choice by the Quran which clearly shows that these unusual words were chosen so that they form an internal rhyme.

Q80:42﴿ أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْكَفَرَةُ الْفَجَرَةُ۝﴾ “Those are the disbelievers, the wicked ones” Old Hijazi: hum ǝl-kafarah ǝl-fajarh Classical Arabic: humu l-kafaratu l-fajarh The Quran uses two words for “disbelievers”: kāfirūn/kāfirīn (used 126 times) and kuffār (used 19 times). This verse is the only time the Quran uses the word “kafarah” for “disbelievers”. The reason for this is for the word to internally rhyme with the next word: ǝl-fajarh (the wicked ones). Reading the verse in Classical Arabic ruins the rhyme between the two words and thus makes this unique choice for the word pointless: humu l-kafaratu l-fajarh. The last word cannot be pronounced “l-fajartu” because it’s at the end of the verse and hence the ‘u’ marker for the nominative isn’t added. And since that nothing was added, the final feminine ‘h’ remains and doesn’t turn into a ‘t’. The verse is spelled in the Quran as: hum al-kafarah al-fajarh. The classical Arabic pronunciation turns the famine ending of the word “al-kafarah” into a ‘t’. So the word should be spelled with a ‘t’ الكفرت . Yet the word in the Quran isn’t spelled with a ‘t’ in accordance with the claimed pausal spelling rule which justifies the mismatch between the spelling of the Quran and the Classical Arabic pronunciation. Note how if the verse is read the same way it’s spelled then the two words rhyme with each other. This observation applies on all Old Hijazi internal rhymes except the ones where the classical Arabic pronunciation only adds final short vowels on words that don’t end with the feminine ‘ah’. In this special case there’s no mismatch between the classical Arabic pronunciation and the spelling as short vowels cannot be spelled in Arabic. An example of this is: العليم الحكيم ǝl-ʕalīm ǝl-ḥakīm (Old Hijazi)

al-ʕalīmu l-ḥakīm (Classical Arabic)

In the following examples, the first word of the two internally rhyming words is a unique word that wasn’t used anywhere else in the Quran. Which shows that these unique words were chosen to form an internal rhyme with the next word:

Q21:90 ﴿إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا يُسَارِعُونَ فِي الْخَيْرَاتِ وَيَدْعُونَنَا ‌رَغَبًا وَرَهَبًا ۖ وَكَانُوا لَنَا خَاشِعِينَ۝﴾ Old Hijazi: raghabā wa rahabā Classical Arabic: raghaban wa rahabā The word “raghab” wasn’t used anywhere else in the Quran. The two words are spelled in the Quran as: raghabā wa rahabā. The classical Arabic nunation of the word “raghab” isn’t written in accordance with the claimed pausal spelling rule. Note how if the two words are read the same way they are spelled then they rhyme with each other.

Q56:37

﴿‌عُرُبًا أَتْرَابًا۝﴾ OH: ʕurubā atrābā CA: ʕuruban ʾatrābā The word “ʕurub” wasn’t used anywhere else in the Quran.

Q71:27 ﴿وَلَا يَلِدُوا إِلَّا فَاجِرًا ‌كَفَّارًا ۝﴾ OH: fājirā kaffārā CA: fājiran kaffārā The word “fājir” wasn’t used anywhere else in the Quran.

Q77:32 ﴿إِنَّهَا تَرْمِي ‌بِشَرَرٍ كَالْقَصْرِ۝﴾ OH: bisharar kal-qaṣar CA: bishararin kal-qaṣar The word “sharar” wasn’t used anywhere else in the Quran. Note: In the canonical readings, the final word is read “qaṣr”. But a number of non-canonical readings read it as “qaṣar” which makes it rhyme perfectly with the preceding word “sharar”.

Q104:1 ﴿وَيْلٌ لِكُلِّ ‌هُمَزَةٍ لُمَزَةٍ ۝﴾ OH: humazah lumazah CA: humazatin lumazah The word “humazah” wasn’t used anywhere else in the Quran.

﴿مِنْ شَرِّ الْوَسْوَاسِ الْخَنَّاسِ۝﴾ Q114:4 OH: min sharri l-waswās ǝl-khannās CA: min sharri l-waswāsi l-khannās The word “waswās” wasn’t used anywhere else in the Quran.

The Rhyming Quality of Old Hijazi internal rhymes

High quality: That’s when the two rhyming words share the same final vowel and final consonant. Such as:

عليم حكيم  ʕalīm ḥakīm (15 attestations)

The two words share the same final vowel (ī) and the same final consonant (m). The fact that the rest of the two words share the same vowel and the same arrangement of consonants makes the rhyming quality perfect: Consonant + a + consonant + ī + m

Normal quality: That’s when the two rhyming words don’t share the same final consonant, but they share the same vowels and the same arrangement of consonants. Such as:

عزيز حكيم ʕazīz ḥakīm (13 attestations)

The two words follow the same scheme: Consonant + a + Consonant + ī + Consonant Note that in the rhyming of verse-final words, the Quran usually alternates between ūn and īn, which means that in the language of the Quran, ū rhymes with ī. So it’s natural to see internal rhymes such as: غفور رحيم ghafūr raḥīm (49 attestations) In the language of the Quran, “ūr” rhymes with “īm”.

Classes of Old Hijazi internal rhymes

1- individual instances. They include 76 unique high quality Old Hijazi internal rhymes. With repetition they are 94 ones. As for individual instances of normal quality internal rhymes, they were so many that this article just lists the strongest 22 unique ones. To see all the internal rhymes, see this article ***** 2- Verse-final attributes of Allah. The majority of internal rhymes in the Quran fall under this type. Of this type, there are 6 unique high quality internal rhymes, 48 with repetition. As for normal quality internal rhymes of this type (verse-final attributes of Allah), there are 26 unique ones, 236 with repetition.

Verse-final attributes of Allah

Verse-final attributes of Allah are used in the endings of hundreds of verses as a poetic device to form easy rhymes. These verse-final attributes consist of two words that rhyme with each other in Old Hijazi, while the second word of the pair rhymes with the last words of the surrounding verses both in Old Hijzai and classical Arabic. The majority of verse-final rhymes in the Quran fall under an easy type of rhyme that takes advantage of the fact that regular plural nouns and adjectives in Arabic end with ūn/īn and that verbs that are conjugated for masculine plural end with ūn. Since that in the language of the Quran ū rhymes with ī, Quranic rhymes freely alternates between ūn and īn. In this rhyming scheme, when a verse doesn’t end with a plural masculine noun or a plural masculine adjective or a verb conjugated for masculine plural, the Quran takes advantage of the fact that many emphatic forms in Arabic end with īC/ūC (C stands for consonant). So the Quran adds an emphatic attribute of God to the end of the verse and thus the verse ends with rhyme that fits the surrounding verses. For example: Surah no.6 follows an ūn/īn rhyme that’s mostly based on regular plural nouns and verbs conjugated for masculine plural. Verse no. 83 says: “That was Our argument with which We equipped Abraham against his people. We raise, in degrees of rank, whom We will.” The word nashāʾ (we will) doesn’t fit the rhyme of the surrounding verses. So the Quran employs the poetic device of using two attributes of God with the last attribute fitting the rhyme of the verses, and so the Quran adds to the verse: “Verily, your Lord is Wise, Knowing.”. Knowing: ʕalīm. Which rhymes with the final word of the preceding verse: muhtadūn, and rhymes with the final word of the following verse: muḥsinīn. The word ʕalīm was used in the same manner in 44 verses. But the Quran usually doesn’t only use one word as an attribute of God in the ending of verses. The Quran usually uses a pair of two words that form an internal rhyme with each other while the second word of the pair forms an external rhyme with the final words of the surrounding verses. All the internal rhymes of verse-final attributes of God don’t rhyme if they were read in classical Arabic. Take for example “Knower, Wise” which was used in the ending of 15 verses: حكيم عليم Old Hijazi: ḥakīm ʕalīm Classical Arabic: ḥakīmun ʕalīm

A list of all Verse-final attributes of Allah that form Old Hijazi internal rhymes 1- High quality internal rhymes. ʕalīm ḥakīm عليم حكيم “Knower, Wise” (15 instances, such as 9:15,28,60,97,106,110)

    ʕalīmā ḥakīmā عليما حكيما (10 instances, such as 4:11,17,24,92,104,111,170)
    al-ʕalīm ǝl-ḥakīm العليم الحكيم “the Knower, the Wise”  (4, such as: 12:83,100)

ḥakīm ʕalīm حكيم عليم “Wise, Knower” (5, such as 6:83,128,139)

    al-ḥakīm ǝl-ʕalīm الحكيم العليم (43:84 , 51:30)

ghafūr shakūr غفور شكور “Forgiving, Appreciative” (35:30,34 , 42:23) ʕalīm ḥalīm عليم حليم “Knower, ¬Forbearing” (4:12, 22:59)

    ʕalīmā ḥalīmā عليما حليما (33:51)

khabīr baṣīr خبير بصير “Aware, Seeing” (35:31, 42:27)

    khabīrā baṣīrā خبيرا بصيرا(17:17,30,96)

qarīb mujīb قريب مجيب “Near, Responsive” (11:61)

Normal quality internal rhymes

ghafūr raḥīm غفور رحيم “Forgiving, Merciful” (49 instances, such as 2:173,182,192)

      ghafūrā raḥīmā غفورا رحيما (15, such as 4:23,96,100,106)
      al-ghafūr ǝr-raḥīm   الغفور الرحيم “the Forgiving, the Merciful” (7, such as 42:5, 46:8)
      ar-raīm ǝl-ghafūr  الرحيم الغفور “the Merciful, the Forgiving” (34:2)

ʕazīz ḥakīm عزيز حكيم “Mighty, Wise” (13, such as 8:10,49,63)

      ʕazīzā ḥakīmā عزيزا حكيما (5, such as 4:56,158,165)
      al-ʕazīz ǝl-ḥakīm العزيز الحكيم (29 instances, such as 3:6,18,62)

samīʕ ʕalīm سميع عليم “Hearer, Knower “(16, such as 8:17,42,53)

     as-samīʕ ǝl-ʕalīm السميع العليم (15, such as 2:127,137)

al-ʕazīz ǝr-raḥīm العزيز الرحيم "the Mighty, the Merciful” (13, such as 26:9,68,104) raūf raḥīm رؤوف رحيم “Kind, Merciful” (9, such as 16:7,47) ghafūr ḥalīm غفور حليم “Forgiving, Forbearing” (4, such as 5:101) ḥalīmā ghafūrā حليما غفورا “Forbearing, Forgiving” (17:44, 35:41) ʕalīm khabīr عليم خبير “Knower, Aware” (31:34, 49:13)

    ʕalīma khabīrā عليما خبيرا (4:35)
    al-ʕalīm ǝl-khabīr العليم الخبير (66:3)

ḥakīm khabīr حكيم خبير “Wise, Aware” (11:1)

   al-ḥakīm ǝl-khabīr   الحكيم الخبير (6:18, 6:73, 34:1)

ʕalīm qadīr عليم قدير “Knower, Powerful” (16:70, 42:50)

   ʕalīmā qadīrā عليما قديرا  (35:44)
    al-ʕalīm ǝl-qadīr العليم القدير   (30:54)

ghafūr ḥalīm غفور حليم “Forgiving, Forbearing” (4, such as 5:101) ḥalīmā ghafūrā حليما غفورا “Forbearing, Forgiving” (17:44, 35:41) laṭīf khabīr لطيف خبير “Subtle, Aware” (22:63, 31:16)

     laṭīfā khabīrā   لطيفا خبيرا  (33:34)
     al-laṭīf ǝl-khabīr اللطيف الخبير (6:103, 67:14)

ʕalīm khabīr عليم خبير “Knower, Aware” (31:34, 49:13)

    ʕalīmā khabīrā عليما خبيرا  (4:35)
    al-ʕalīm ǝl-khabīr العليم الخبير (66:3)

ʕazīz ghafūr عزيز غفور “Mighty, Forgiving” (35:28)

  al- azīz ǝl-ghafūr العزيز الغفور (67:2)

al- azīz ǝl-ʕalīm العزيز العليم “the Mighty, the Knower” (6, such as 6:96, 27:78) al-ʕazīz ǝl-ḥamīd العزيز الحميد “the Mighty, the Owner of Praise”(14:1, 34:6, 85:8) samīʕ baṣīr سميع بصير “Hearer, Seer” (4, such as 22:61)

    samīʕā baṣīrā سميعا بصيرا (3, such as 4:58)
    as-samīʕ ǝl-baṣīr السميع البصير (4, such as 40:20)

ʕalīm ḥalīm عليم حليم “Knower, Forbearing” (4:12, 22:59)

    ʕalīmā ḥalīmā عليما حليما (33:51)

raḥīm wadūd رحيم ودود “Merciful, Loving” (11:90) ḥakīm ḥamīd حكيم حميد “Wise, Owner of Praise” (41:42) shakūr ḥalīm شكور حليم “Appreciative, Forbearing” (64:17) al-ghafūr ǝl-wadūd الغفور الودود “the Forgiving, the Loving” (85:14) samīʕ qarīb سميع قريب “Hearer, Near” (34:50) ḥamīd majīd حميد مجيد “Owner of Praise, Owner of Glory” (11:73)

Old Hijazi Internal Rhymes in Hadith

Hadith was written down in the second and third Islamic centuries, the same period that Arab grammarians wrote their first works. In their works there’s no mention of any variety of Arabic that lacks nunation and final short vowels. Yet the Hadith tradition has many internal rhymes that only appear if nunation and final short vowels were dropped. Which leads to the same conclusion that Van Putten reaches based on the study of pre-Islamic Arabic varieties and the early Arabic texts written in scripts other than Arabic. He says: “(what) the Arabic the grammarians saw fit to comment upon is a highly selective subset of forms of Arabic that were around. Exclusively taking that which the grammarians saw fit to comment upon as “Arabic”, ignores a vast amount of linguistic variation that existed in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic period.” (Quranic Arabic by Marijn Van Putten, p.18)

Examples of Old Hijazi internal rhymes in Hadith

The first example is from the seven aḥruf Hadith listed in a huge number of Hadith sources. The two rhyming words in this Hadith always come at a possible pausal position and sometimes at the end of the Hadith, such as:

«نَزَلَ الْقُرْآنُ عَلَى سَبْعَةِ أَحْرُفٍ كُلٌّ ‌شَافٍ ‌كَافٍ» (Musannaf of Ibn Shaybah, vol.6 p.137, Dar Al-Taj) Old Hijazi: shāf kāf Classical Arabic: shāfin kāf, or shāfin kāfī

أَنَّ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ كَانَ يَدْعُو فِي الصَّلَاةِ اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ عَذَابِ الْقَبْرِ ، وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ فِتْنَةِ الْمَسِيحِ الدَّجَّالِ ، وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ فِتْنَةِ الْمَحْيَا وَالْمَمَاتِ ، اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْمَأْثَمِ وَ الْمَغْرَمِ. (Sahih Muslim, vol.1 p.412, Matbaʿat Isa Al-Babi) Old Hijazi: al-mātham wal-maghram Classical Arabic: al-maʾthami wal-maghram

اللَّهمَّ إنِّي أسألُكَ مِنَ الخيرِ كلِّهِ عاجلِهِ وآجلِهِ ، ما عَلِمْتُ منهُ وما لم أعلَمْ ، وأعوذُ بِكَ منَ الشَّرِّ كلِّهِ عاجلِهِ وآجلِهِ ، ما عَلِمْتُ منهُ وما لم أعلَمْ. (Sunan Ibn Majah, vol.5 p.17, Dar Al-Risalah Al-ʿilmiyyah) OH: ʕājilih wa ʾājilih CA: ʕājilihī wa ʾājilih

For more examples see the article (link)