Alif. Lam. Mim., muqatta'at
Sura 2 I am Allah, the best Knower Commentary The original words are alif, lam, mlm. Translations of the Holy Qur-an generally leave abbreviations, like the one occurring here, untranslated. The combinations of letters or single letters occurring at the commencement of several chapters of the Holy Qur-an, 29 in all, are called ... simply muqatta'at , and according to the best received opinion these letters are abbreviations standing for words. .... Abbreviations are known to all languages, the only peculiarity of their use in Arabic literature being that the letters carry different meanings in different places, and the meaning is decided in each case by the context. Such is the opinion of I’Ab (AH). Both he and IMsd agree in interpreting the alif, Idm, mim occurring here, as well as at the commencement of the 3rd, 29th, 30th, 31st, and 32nd chapters of the Holy QurAn, as ... I am Allah, the best Knower, alif standing for ana , lam for Allah , and mim for a'lamu (A...