Muqattaʿat

[6][7] Christoph Luxenberg in The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran (2000) proposed that substantial portions of the text of the Qur'an were directly taken from Syriac liturgy.

His explanation of the disjoined letters is that they are remnants of indications for the liturgical recitation for the Syriac hymns that ended up being copied into the Arabic text.

[10][11] Amin Ahsan Islahi[year needed] supported al-Razi's opinion, arguing that since these letters are names for Surahs, they are proper nouns.

Hamiduddin Farahi similarly attaches symbolic meanings to the letters, e.g. Nun (ن) symbolizing "fish" identifying the sura that mentions Jonah, or Ta (ط) representing "serpent" introducing suras that mention the story of Prophet Moses and serpents.

[12] Ahsan ur Rehman (2013) claims that there are phonological, syntactic and semantic links between the prefixed letters and the text of the chapters.

[13] Theodor Nöldeke (1860) advanced the theory that the letters were marks of possession, belonging to the owners of Qur'anic copies used in the first collection by Zayd ibn Thābit during the reign of the Caliph 'Uthmān.

Nöldeke later revised this theory, responding to Otto Loth's (1881) suggestion that the letters had a distinct connection with the mystic figures and symbols of the Jewish Kabbalah.

Nöldeke in turn concluded that the letters were a mystical reference to the archetypal text in heaven that was the basis for the revelation of the Qur'an.

[27] In 1857–58, Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the Baháʼí Faith, wrote his Commentary on the Isolated Letters (Tafsír-i-Hurúfát-i-Muqattaʻih, also known as Lawh-i-Áyiy-i-Núr, Tablet of the Light Verse).

Baháʼu'lláh gives various interpretations of the letters "alif, lam, mim", mostly relating to Allah, trusteeship (wilayah) and the prophethood (nubuwwah) of Muhammad.

[28] By removing the duplicate letters (leaving only one of each of the 14 initials) and rearranging them, one can create the sentence "نص حكيم قاطع له سر " which could translate to: "A wise and conclusive text has a secret".

[citation needed] One Western mystical interpretation of the muqattaʿat is given by Rudolf von Sebottendorf in his work Die Praxis der alten türkischen Freimauerei; von Sebottendorf interprets them as mantra-like formulas (Formel) to be meditated upon (in association with certain gestures) during a set of elaborate meditation exercises.

The fourteen letters are: ʾalif أ, hā هـ, ḥā ح, ṭā ط, yā ي, kāf ك, lām ل, mīm م, nūn ن, sīn س, ʿain ع, ṣād ص, qāf ق, rā ر.