And the two tasbihs of bowing and prostration, …

His statement, “the two tasbihs of bowing and prostration”: these are the fourth and fifth obligatory elements.

“The two tasbihs of bowing”: How are they pronounced?

The answer: they are pronounced with the alif omitted, leaving the final tāʾ with a fatḥah. If a listener were to say to you, “You have joined an accusative to a nominative,” reply: “I have not joined an accusative to a nominative; rather, I have joined a nominative to a nominative, because the dual takes an alif in the nominative case. Tasbīḥatā means two tasbihs.”

If he asks, “Where is the alif?” reply: “The alif has been omitted, because it is a vowelless weak letter followed by another vowelless letter—namely, the connecting hamzah in the word al-rukūʿ. Thus, two vowelless letters have come together, so the weak letter is omitted.” Ibn Mālik said in al-Kāfiyah:

When two vowelless letters meet, give kasrah to what precedes;

But if it is a weak letter, its deletion is required.

The alif is a weak letter, so it is omitted in pronunciation. Thus, one says tasbīḥata r-rukūʿ, but it is not omitted in writing; rather, it is written tasbīḥatā. I have mentioned this in order to move on to an issue in which some reciters err: the saying of Allah, Most High:

“And We certainly gave David and Solomon knowledge, and they said, ‘Praise be to Allah.’” [al-Nahl: 15]

They pronounce the alif in connected recitation, and this is incorrect. Rather, we say: wa qāla l-ḥamdu lillāh.

If someone were to ask, “If you say, wa qāla l-ḥamdu lillāh, would this not lead the listener to think that the speaker was one person—namely Solomon—since he is the nearest person mentioned?”

We say: if someone imagines this, the error lies not with the reciter but with the listener’s misunderstanding. The reciter is not responsible for it. Rather, he must recite in accordance with what the Arabic language requires, for the Quran was revealed in it.