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How many Basmalas are paused upon in Warsh's narration from Nafi' concerning the Holy Quran, and what are the reasons for pausing?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The narration from Warsh, through the path of Al-Azraq, differs regarding the mention of the Basmala between two surahs, whether by joining them, or by pausing (sakt), thus presenting three possible ways. As for the path of Al-Asbahani, he only has the option of separating with the Basmala. Some later reciters, such as Ibn Ghalboun, chose to make a sakt (pause) between four specific surahs: Al-Muddathir and Al-Qiyamah, Al-Infitar and Al-Mutaffifin, Al-Fajr and Al-Balad, and Al-Asr and Al-Humazah, in order to distinguish between negation and affirmation, patience and the name of Allah, and woes. However, this has not been narrated from Warsh. The sakt is more preferable because it removes any linguistic awkwardness and because it is transmitted from Warsh.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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