Why does القرآن contain an alef madda?

Question

I thought alef madda could only be used at the start of a word?

Answer 1

The alif-madd in the Arabic language actually consists of two hamza-alifs when coming in the beginning. For an example: The word Adam - آدم is actually A'adam - أأدم. When two hamza-alifs follow one another, they are changed to an alif-madd. The alif-madd can occur anywhere in a word. You don't normally see madd-alifs in Modern Standard Arabic, but if you look in the Quran, you will see that there are many words that use it which don't exist if you write it in regular Arabic:

http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/arabics...

The madd-alifs in the Quran signify the length of the vowel. Depending on where the madd is in the Quran, the madd is lengthened. So the madd ~ signifies the length of the vowel when reading so you are getting the right word across. As you can see from the link I provided, it can occur even at the end of a word. Reading it in shorter intervals can change the meaning. Hope this answered your question!

Answer 2

not necessarily it can be also used in the middle of a word.

Answer 3

Yeah, it can be used at the middle of a word also