Alif, Lām, Meem.
Sahih International
Grammar, phrase by phrase
الٓمٓ
(Alif, Lām, Meem.)
الٓمٓword 1
Quranic Initials (Muqaṭṭaʿāt) · الحروف المقطعةThese are separated letters — recited one letter at a time by their names: alif, lām, mīm. Several surahs open this way with such letters. They take no ending, and they play no role as subject or predicate in any sentence. Allah knows best what they mean. L20 · R26
These individual letters at the openings of surahs are among the matters whose knowledge Allah has kept for Himself; the scholars did not settle on one explanation, and it is safest to refrain from judgment. They stand as a sign of the Qur'an's inimitability — that people cannot produce its like even from the same letters with which they speak.
Ibn Kathir (abridged), on 2:1
So far: “Alif, Lām, Meem.”