Disjoined letters at the openings of surahs

Some surahs open with disjoined letters. At the start of his commentary on Surah Al-A'raf, Muhammad Rashid Rida states that his preferred view is that their wisdom is to alert the listener to what follows, so that nothing is missed. ^{1 2} Al-A'raf 1

Rida notes that the Prophet ﷺ recited these surahs to the polytheists of Mecca to call them to Islam and to establish revelation and prophethood. All of them are Meccan except al-Baqara and Al 'Imran, and most of them open by mentioning the Book. ²

Rida shows that each surah of this kind has a theme connected with establishing the message and the Book. He notes that Surah al-'Ankabut speaks of trials in religion, and that Surah al-Rum reported the victory of the Romans over the Persians after the Persians had defeated them, which was one of the miracles of the Qur'an. ^{2 3}

This is Rida's choice and his reasoning, and it is attributed to him. The other views on the meaning of the disjoined letters, and what the scholars of the Qur'anic sciences said about them, have not yet been presented.

The disjoined letters are letters with which some surahs open, such as Alif Lam Mim and Ha Mim; the Sheikh says that Taha and Yasin are among them and are not names of the Prophet ⁴.

The Sheikh says that Taha and Yasin are not among the names of the Prophet, and that Mustafa and Mukhtar are attributes rather than names ⁴. He says they belong to the disjoined letters with which some surahs open, like Alif Lam Mim and Ha Mim ⁴. He criticises naming a boy Taha on the understanding that it is one of the Prophet's names ⁴.