وَعَنِ ابْنِ مَسْعُودٍ
قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: «مَنْ قَرَأَ حَرْفًا مِنْ كِتَابِ اللَّهِ فَلَهُ بِهِ حَسَنَةٌ وَالْحَسَنَةُ بِعَشْرِ أَمْثَالِهَا لَا أَقُولُ: آلم حَرْفٌ. أَلْفٌ حَرْفٌ وَلَامٌ حَرْفٌ وَمِيمٌ حَرْفٌ»
“If anyone recites a letter of God’s Book he will be credited with a good deed, and a good deed gets a tenfold reward (Al-Qur’an, 6:160). I do not say that A.L.M are one letter*, but alif is a letter, lam is a letter and mim is a letter.” *These letters occur at the beginning of suras 2, 3, 29, 30, 31 and 32. No satisfactory explanation of their meaning has been given.
A brief discussion of them is given by Abdullah Yusuf Ali in The Holy Qur’an, Text, Translation & Commentary (Lahore, 1934 and later editions), note 25. Sea also pp. 118-120. Tirmidhi and Darimi transmitted it, Tirmidhi saying this is a hasan sahih tradition whose isnad is gharib.