ABSTRACT:
          This contribution discusses the relationship between the syntax and the qur'anic rules of al-waqf (pausing of reading). The arabic text in the early qur'anic manuscripts and in the Uthmanic codex was written without the common system of punctuation. The early Muslims established a system of rules called al-waqf to determine the phrases and to assign the words in the text to the correct phrase. The syntactic structures of some selected examples from the Qur'an demonstrate the mutual dependence of the syntax and this system of rules. Both the syntax and al-waqf influence the construction of the sentences and therefore the related meaning. In the case that the syntactic structure allows for more than one possible meaning, the pause (al-waqf) is used to decide which meaning is the valid one.