Abū al-Ḥārith ʿan al-Kisāʾī¶

Abū al-Ḥārith al-Layth ibn Khālid al-Baghdādī (d. 240 AH / 854 CE) ← al-Kisāʾī, ʿAlī ibn Ḥamzah al-Kūfī (119–189 AH / 737–805 CE), the last of the seven canonical reciters and a leading Kūfan grammarian. See the imām's overview.

This page is self-contained: it gives every uṣūl rule and every farsh reading that a learner of the Abū al-Ḥārith transmission of al-Kisāʾī needs, including the rules al-Kisāʾī applies through both his rāwīs together with the points distinctive to Abū al-Ḥārith.

Uṣūl¶

Istiʿādhah (الاسْتِعاذة)¶

• Rule: Recited aloud (جِهَارًا) before beginning recitation — mandatory at the start of any sūrah (except al-Tawbah), optional when beginning mid-sūrah.
• Explanation: The seeking of refuge precedes recitation; it is pronounced clearly so that listeners know recitation is starting.
• Example: أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ
• Matn: line 95

Basmalah between sūrahs (البَسْمَلة بَين السُّورَتَين)¶

• Rule: Always recites the basmalah between two sūrahs — al-Kisāʾī is in the basmalah group (with Ibn Kathīr, ʿĀṣim, Qālūn), not in Ḥamzah's sakt camp.
• Explanation: The basmalah attaches to the start of the following sūrah. At the start of any sūrah other than al-Tawbah the basmalah is required; before al-Tawbah there is none, and from al-Anfāl to al-Tawbah the options are waqf, sakt, or waṣl.
• Example: end of al-Fātiḥah → بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ → start of al-Baqarah.
• Matn: line 103

Madd muttaṣil (المَدّ المُتَّصِل)¶

• Rule: 4–5 ḥarakāt (moderate length).
• Explanation: When a long vowel is followed by a hamzah in the same word, the vowel is prolonged to a moderate count.
• Example: جَاءَ, السَّمَاءَ
• Matn: line 161

Madd munfaṣil (المَدّ المُنفَصِل)¶

• Rule: 4–5 ḥarakāt (moderate length; no qaṣr).
• Explanation: When a word ends in a long vowel and the next word begins with hamzah, the vowel is prolonged to the same moderate count.
• Example: بِمَا أُنْزِلَ, قُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ
• Matn: line 161

Madd lāzim (المَدّ اللازِم)¶

• Rule: 6 ḥarakāt.
• Explanation: When a long vowel is followed by an original (permanent) sukūn or a shaddah, it is prolonged the full count.
• Example: الضَّالِّينَ, الْحَاقَّةُ; the spelled letters such as الم (مِيم → mīm with 6 ḥarakāt)
• Matn: line 177

Madd ʿāriḍ li-l-sukūn (المَدّ العارِض للسُّكون)¶

• Rule: 2, 4, or 6 ḥarakāt at waqf.
• Explanation: When stopping turns the final letter sākin after a long vowel, the vowel may be held short, medium, or long.
• Example: Stopping on الْعَالَمِينَ, نَسْتَعِينُ
• Matn: line 177

Madd al-ʿiwaḍ (مَدّ العِوَض)¶

• Rule: 2 ḥarakāt — when stopping on a word ending in tanwīn fatḥah, the tanwīn becomes a long /ā/.
• Explanation: Compensatory madd replaces the dropped tanwīn at waqf.
• Example: Stopping on كِتَابًا → كِتَابَا
• Matn: line 171

Imālah kubrā (extensive) (الإمالة الكُبْرى)¶

• Rule: Full imālah kubrā — tilting the fatḥah strongly toward kasrah and the alif toward yāʾ — applied extensively, on the same broad scope as Ḥamzah.
• Explanation: Imālah falls on alifs whose root letter is yāʾ (alif munqalibah), on the alif of taʾnīth (the maqṣūrah ending feminine nouns/adjectives in all cases), on faʿlā patterns and expanded verbs, and on the verse-ending alifs of sūrahs such as طه, النجم, الشمس, الأعلى, الليل, الضحى, اقرأ, النازعات, القيامة, المعارج. The test: a noun whose dual takes yāʾ (هُدًى → هُدَيَان), or a verb whose first-person takes yāʾ (هَدَى → هَدَيْتُ), qualifies; a wāw-origin alif (عَصَا → عَصَوَان) does not.
• Example: هُدًى, اشْتَرَاهُ, الْهَوَى, ذِكْرَى, بُشْرَى
• Matn: line 294

Imālah of the muqaṭṭaʿāt letters (إمالة الحُروف المُقَطَّعة)¶

• Rule: Imālah on the openings spelled هَا, يَا, طَا, حَا, رَا in the sūrah-opening disconnected letters.
• Explanation: These two-letter spelled openings carry the same inclination as the rest of his imālah.
• Example: طه (طَا-هَا), يس (يَا), كهيعص (the هَا and يَا)
• Matn: line 294

Imālah of hāʾ al-taʾnīth at waqf (إمالة هاء التأنيث وَقْفًا)¶

• Rule: At waqf the tāʾ marbūṭah (ة) becomes hāʾ (ـه); al-Kisāʾī tilts that hāʾ and the fatḥah before it toward kasrah/yāʾ — except when the letter immediately before the hāʾ is one of ten letters: ح, ق, ض, غ, ا, ط, ع, ص, خ, ظ (mnemonic حَقٌّ ضِغَاطُ عَصٍ خَظَا).
• Explanation: This is a feature unique to al-Kisāʾī. After a kasrah the imālah applies even if a sākin letter intervenes (sukūn is no barrier); after a sākin yāʾ it applies; after fatḥah or ḍammah it is weak/dispreferred.
• Example: Stopping on رَحْمَة → رَحْمَه (tilted); لَعِبْرَة, مِائَة, وِجْهَة, لَيْكَة (tilted). But صَلَاة (preceded by ا, one of the ten) is not tilted.
• Matn: line 339

Hamzah — two hamzahs in one word (الهَمْزَتان في كَلِمة)¶

• Rule: Full pronunciation (taḥqīq) of both hamzahs.
• Explanation: Where a word has two consecutive hamzahs (fatḥ+fatḥ, fatḥ+kasr, or fatḥ+ḍamm), both are articulated fully. (Position-by-position detail awaiting confirmation.)
• Example: أَأَنْذَرْتَهُمْ, أَئِنَّا, أَءُنْزِلَ
• Matn: line 183

Hamzah — Fuṣṣilat 41:44 (أَأَعْجَمِيٌّ) (الهَمْز)¶

• Rule: Both hamzahs pronounced fully here.
• Explanation: Al-Kisāʾī is part of the ṣuḥbah group (with Ḥamzah and Shuʿbah) that gives full taḥqīq of both hamzahs in this specific word.
• Example: ءَأَعْجَمِيٌّ وَعَرَبِيٌّ
• Matn: line 185

Hamzah — at waqf (الوَقْف على الهَمْز)¶

• Rule: Pronounces the hamzah fully at waqf (taḥqīq); no facilitation system when stopping.
• Explanation: When stopping on a word containing hamzah, the hamzah is articulated as in waṣl, with no ibdāl, tashīl, or naql at the stop.
• Example: Stopping on السَّمَاءَ keeps the hamzah; يَشَاءُ keeps the hamzah.
• Matn: line 183 (awaiting confirmation for the complete hamzah position list)

Ishmām of passive verbs (قِيلَ وأخواتها) (إشْمام (قِيلَ وأخواتها))¶

• Rule: Ishmām on the initial kasrah of certain passive verbs — mixing a hint of ḍammah into the kasrah to signal the original (active) pattern.
• Explanation: Affects قِيلَ, غِيضَ, جِيءَ, حِيلَ, سِيقَ, سِيءَ / سِيئَتْ.
• Example: قِيلَ pronounced with a ḍammah-tinged kasrah on the qāf.
• Matn: line 447

Iskān of the hāʾ in هُوَ / هِيَ (إسْكان هاء (هُوَ وهِيَ))¶

• Rule: Silences (iskān) the hāʾ of هُوَ / هِيَ when preceded by a connective particle (وَ، فَ، لَ، ثُمَّ): وَهُوَ → وَهْوَ, فَهِيَ → فَهْيَ.
• Explanation: Al-Kisāʾī (named in the matn by the whole-reciter cipher ر, which covers both his rāwīs) applies this iskān; Abū al-Ḥārith therefore does it as part of al-Kisāʾī's reading.
• Example: وَهُوَ الَّذِي → وَهْوَ الَّذِي; فَهِيَ كَالْحِجَارَةِ → فَهْيَ كَالْحِجَارَةِ
• Matn: line 449

Hāʾ al-kināyah ṣilah (صِلة هاء الكِناية)¶

• Rule: Standard rule — ṣilah on the third-person pronoun hāʾ (هُ/هِ) only when it falls between two voweled letters.
• Explanation: No extended ṣilah after a sākin; the connecting vowel appears only in the standard voweled-voweled environment.
• Example: إِنَّهُ كَانَ
• Matn: line 158

Mīm al-jamʿ (مِيم الجَمْع)¶

• Rule: No ṣilah on the plural mīm (هُمْ، كُمْ، تُمْ) — the mīm stays sākin.
• Explanation: The plural mīm is not connected with a wāw before a voweled letter.
• Example: عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ; أَنْتُمْ
• Matn: line 111

Idghām of يٰسٓ and نٓ (الإدْغام)¶

• Rule: With the شفا group (Ḥamzah + al-Kisāʾī), Abū al-Ḥārith assimilates the nūn of يٰسٓ ۚ وَالْقُرْآنِ and نٓ ۚ وَالْقَلَمِ into the following wāw.
• Explanation: Where the baseline (Ḥafṣ etc.) keeps the fawātiḥ nūn clear (iẓhār), al-Kisāʾī's readers merge it into the wāw.
• Example: يٰسٓ ۚ وَالْقُرْآنِ → the nūn assimilated into the wāw.
• Matn: line 281

Ibdāl of the hamzah in الذِّئْب (إبْدال الهَمْز)¶

• Rule: Abū al-Ḥārith reads الذِّئْب with the sākin hamzah changed to a yāʾ — الذِّيب — wherever it occurs (al-Yūsuf).
• Explanation: The hamzah is softened into the madd letter matching the preceding kasrah; al-Kisāʾī shares this ibdāl with Warsh (who also has بِئْر، بِئْس).
• Example: أَخَافُ أَنْ يَأْكُلَهُ الذِّيب.
• Matn: line 222

Idghām kabīr (الإدْغام الكَبير)¶

• Rule: None — two identical/homorganic voweled letters meeting across a word boundary are pronounced distinctly (iẓhār).
• Explanation: Abū al-Ḥārith does not merge a voweled letter into the following identical/similar voweled letter.
• Example: يَعْلَمُ مَا read with both mīms distinct.
• Matn: line 116

Yāʾ al-iḍāfah (ياء الإضافة)¶

• Rule: Al-Kisāʾī (both rāwīs alike) reads the first-person yāʾ with iskān in a large set of words that Ḥafṣ opens — close to Ḥamzah's profile, but narrower before lām al-taʿrīf.
• Iskān where Ḥafṣ has fatḥ:
  • وَجْهِيَ → وَجْهِيْ (Q3:20, 6:79) — line 414.
  • بَيْتِيَ → بَيْتِيْ (Q2:125, 22:26, 71:28) — line 414.
  • أُمِّيَ (Q5:116) and أَجْرِيَ in its nine places (Q10:72; 11:29, 51; 26:109, 127, 145, 164, 180; 34:47) — the صُحْبَة group — line 403.
  • يَدِيَ (Q5:28) — line 402.
  • مَعِيَ → مَعِيْ in all its places — lines 398, 417.
  • لِيَ → لِيْ in Q38:23, Q14:22, Q38:69, and وَلِيَ فِيهَا (Q20:18) — lines 417, 419.
  • وَلِيَ دِينِ → وَلِيْ دِينِ (Q109:6) — line 415.
  • Before lām al-taʿrīf, iskān in three places only: لِعِبَادِيَ (Q14:31) and يَا عِبَادِيَ (Q29:56, 39:53) — lines 407–410.
• Same as Ḥafṣ (fatḥ): مَا لِيَ (Q27:20) and مَا لِيَ (Q36:22) — the iskān there is Ḥamzah's, not al-Kisāʾī's — lines 416, 419.
• Example: Q6:79 إِنِّي وَجَّهْتُ وَجْهِيْ لِلَّذِي فَطَرَ — sākin yāʾ where Ḥafṣ reads وَجْهِيَ.
• Matn: lines 388–419

Yāʾāt al-zawāʾid (ياءات الزَّوائِد)¶

• Rule: Al-Kisāʾī affirms the yāʾ in waṣl and drops it in waqf in نَبْغِ (Q18:64 → نَبْغِي in waṣl) and يَأْتِ (Q11:105 → يَأْتِي in waṣl), where Ḥafṣ drops the yāʾ in both states — line 424.
• Also: in فَمَا آتَانِ (Q27:36) al-Kisāʾī has no yāʾ in either state, while Ḥafṣ reads آتَانِيَ in waṣl and stops with two wajhs — line 429.
• Matn: lines 420–441

Farsh¶

Every farsh ruling in which Abū al-Ḥārith (al-Layth ʿan al-Kisāʾī) departs from Ḥafṣ, in muṣḥaf order: each row gives the verse, Ḥafṣ's reading (for contrast), Abū al-Ḥārith's actual reading, a Qurʾānic example, and the matn line; rulings where al-Kisāʾī sits with the majority/base are omitted. Rows marked (awaiting confirmation) are decoded from al-Shāṭibiyyah's matn but not yet cross-checked against a printed sharḥ.