‫قبل الشرع أوال أن يعلموا‬ ‫إذ واجب عليهم محتم‬

‫لينطقوا بأصفح اللغات‬ ‫مخارج الحروف والصفات‬

‫™‪Reeyul quloob‬‬
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ARABIC LETTERS
CONTENT
How Many letter in Arabic Alphabet :
Spoken and Written
Abjadi order : Hijayi order

The Development in its writing

Introduction of the Letter Hamza

Detailing of forms by adding dots

in order to identify and differentiate
the letter for Non-Arabs
 THE ARABIC LETTERS :
HOW MANY LETTERS ARE THERE ARABIC ALPHABET

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 The Arabic Letters
The Arabic letters can be broken up into two
categories:

1. The Spoken Alphabet: 29 letters. The Arabs used 29 letters in

their speech, and these 29 letters are what make up the words of
the Qur’an as well as the Arabic language as a whole, from
beginning to end.

2. The Written Alphabet: 28 letters

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 INTRODUCTION
• The basic Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters. Adaptations of
the Arabic script for other languages added and removed some
letters, as for Kurdish, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Sindhi, Urdu,
Malay, Pashto, and Malayalam
• There were no distinct upper and lower case letter forms.

• Many letters look similar but are distinguished from one

another by dots (i‘jām) above or below their central part (rasm).

• These dots are an integral part of a letter, since they

distinguish between letters that represent different sounds.
For example, the Arabic letters transliterated as b and t have
the same basic shape, but ba has one dot below ‫ ب‬and ta has
two dots above .‫ت‬
 INTRODUCTION
The most widely spoken Semitic languages today are (numbers giv
en are for native speakers only) Arabic (300 million),[Amharic (~65
million), Tigrinya (7 million),Hebrew (~5 million native/L1 speakers)
, Tigre (~1.05 million), Aramaic (575,000 to 1 million largely Assyria
n fluent speakers) and Maltese (483,000 speakers).

22 letters are consonants will be in all Semitic languages

‫ ا ب ج د هـ و ز ح ط ي ك ل م ن س ع ف ص ق ر ش ت‬- 22 consonants
‫ ث خ ذ ض ظ غ‬- 6 letters that are added as to the Arabic language need
 The Spoken Arabic
Alphabet consist of 29 letters, put in order by al-Imam
Nasr bin ‘Aasim al-Laythi, d. 90AH

According to their similar shapes and he added dots to

these letters in order to distinguish letters which had the
Same shape, one from another:

‫بتث جحخ دذرز سش صضطظ عغ فق كل منه‬ ‫أ‬

‫و ال ي‬
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 The Written Arabic
• There are two main collating sequences for the Arabic alphabet
ABJAD AND HIJAI’

• The original abjadī order ‫ أَ ْب َجدِي‬used for lettering, derives from the
order of the Phoenician alphabet, and is therefore similar to the
order of other Phoenician-derived alphabets, such as the Hebrew
alphabet. In this order, letters are also used as numbers, Abjad
numerals, and possess the same alphanumeric code/cipher as
Hebrew gematria and Greek isopsephy.

• The hijā’ī ‫ ِه َجائِي‬or alifbā’ī ‫ أَ ِل ْفبَائِي‬order is used wherein letters are

partially grouped together by similarity of shape. The hijā’ī order
is never used as numerals.
 The Written Alphabet
The written alphabet involves a very specific arrangement of the
letters in a certain order. This order may differ between the
Arab lands in the east and those in the west, as shown below:
‫ ضَ َظ ُغ‬، ‫ َ ََث ُذ‬، ‫ قَ َر َش جت‬، ‫ َس جع َف جص‬، ‫ َ ََك ُم جن‬، ‫ ُح ِّطي‬، ‫ َه َّو جز‬، ‫َأ ج َْب جد‬
vs.
‫ َظغ َُش‬، ‫ َ ََث ُذ‬، ‫ قَ َر َس جت‬، ‫ َص جع َف جض‬، ‫ ََكَ ُم جن‬، ‫ ُح ِّطي‬، ‫ َه َّو جز‬، ‫َأ ج َْب جد‬
The first arrangement was used by Arab lands in the east (Hijaz
and Shaam area), while the second arrangement was used mostly in
the western Arab lands (Morocco and Andalus area).
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 1000 ‫غ‬ 100 ‫ق‬ 10 ‫ي‬ 1 ‫ا‬
200 ‫ر‬ 20 ‫ك‬ 2 ‫ب‬
300 ‫ش‬ 30 ‫ل‬ 3 ‫ج‬
400 ‫ت‬ 40 ‫م‬ 4 ‫د‬
500 ‫ث‬ 50 ‫ن‬ 5 ‫ه‬
600 ‫خ‬ 60 ‫س‬ 6 ‫و‬
700 ‫ذ‬ 70 ‫ع‬ 7 ‫ز‬
800 ‫ض‬ 80 ‫ف‬ 8 ‫ح‬
900 ‫ظ‬ 90 ‫ص‬ 9 ‫ط‬
This is commonly vocalized as follows: abjad hawwaz ḥuṭṭī kalaman sa‘faṣ qarashat thakhadh ḍaẓagh.
Another vocalization is: abujadin hawazin ḥuṭiya kalman sa‘faṣ qurishat thakhudh ḍaẓugh
 THE ARABIC LETTERS :
DEVELOPMENT AND STAGES IN ITS WRITING

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Writing of The Hamzah Past And Present

‫أنتم‬
‫أنزل‬

‫إذا‬
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Contributions of
Imam Khalil ibn Ahmed Al Farahidee
❖ Fathah as alif mabthoohah, dhummah as wow sagheera and
kasrah as ya sagheera.

❖ He gave the head of the letter ‫ ) خفيف( خ‬for the sukoon and
for the shaddah, the first part of the letter ‫)شديد (ش‬

❖ Hamzathul wasl, the head of the letter ‫ ص‬is given (‫) صلى‬

❖ Hamzah, the head of the letter ‫( ع‬makhraj almost same for

both)

❖ A’lamathil madd ~ (from the word madd itself –‫) مد‬

Writing Of The Hamzah Past And Present

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Writing Of The Hamzah Past And Present

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 Thereafter, the scholars would place this
shape on top of an Alif,

al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi, d. 175AH was the

first person to designate a specific shape or form for the letter
. ‫همزة‬
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 THE ARABIC LETTERS :
DESIGNATION OF THE DOTS FOR DIFFERENTIATION

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 Arrangement of
hurooful hijaaeey
by Imam Nasr Bin
Asim Al Laythhi
 Adding Dots to the Letters
In order to distinguish one from another,
Nasr ibn ‘Aasim designated a dot be placed in the
middle for the letter ‫ ج‬and one on top for the letter ‫ خ‬while
the letter ‫ ح‬remained without any dots because it no longer
needed to be distinguished from the other two.

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➢ Letters of same shape are grouped together

❖ First letter is hamzah, but it is called as alif bec

‫ا‬ ause, the sound is same as that of hamzah and th

ey are used as the same letter.

❖ The letters are given one two and three dots

‫بتث‬ respectively that they are clearly distinguishable

❖ The jeem was given one dot below it and the

‫جحخ‬ letter ha was left without any dots and the
letter kha was given a dot above it.
‫دذ‬ ❖ The letter daal was left without any dots an
d the letter dhal was given a dot over it.

‫رز‬ ❖ The letter ra was left without any dots and t

he letter za was given a dot over it

❖ The letter seen and sheen have 3 waves

‫سش‬ ❖ Sheen was given 3 dots which were in vertica
l row at first and then shaped ‫ فخ‬the current
form

‫عغ‬ ❖ One dot was given to the shape for the letter
ghayn to distinguish form the letter ayn
The Stages of Development of the Letters of ‫إطباق‬

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The Stages of Development of the Letters of ‫إطباق‬

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The Stages of Development of the Letters of ‫إطباق‬

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 The Stages of Development of the Letters of ‫ ف‬and ‫ق‬

There is another arrangement

of the dots done by the people
of al-Koofah, whereby they
placed one dot under for the le
tter ‫ ف‬and one dot on top for
the letter .‫ ق‬This is also the pr
actice of the people of
al-Maghrib (region of Morocco)
, which is still found today.
The Stages of Development of the Letter ‫ك ل‬

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 ❖ No similar letter is there. So, it is left as such
‫م‬ .

❖ A dot was given above it to distinguish it from

‫ن‬ other similar letters

‫هوى‬ ❖ No similar letter is there. So, it is left as such.

 ‫ال‬
❖ It is the letter alif. As it is a sakin letter, it is put
together with the letter lam

Why is letter lam selected ?

❖ It is because to distinguish from the lam ul tha’reef,

where it is the lam sakinah. It cannot be separated,
but the lam alif can be.

Imam Abu Aswad Ad Duali
Imam Nasr bin A’sim al Laythhi
Imam Khalil ibn Ahmed Al Farahidee
Gave nuqtha for harakath – fathah
a red dot on the upper right, dhum
mah on lower left and kasrah below
the letter
Tanween will be two dots and for
sakin, nothing will be there
Reordered the abjadeeyah letters
to hurooful hijaaiey. And gave the
dhabth bil harf to differentiate.
Gave the harakath as in present
stage.
MECHANICISM OF PRODUCTION OF SOUND
DIFFERNET WAYS OF PRODUCING SOUND

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 How The Sound Is Produced
The definition of a “sound” or ‫ الصوت‬is the following:
Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium
and can be heard when they reach a
person’s ear

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 1. The Collision Of Two Separate Bodies

A hammer hitting a piece of wood, two hands clapping, etc.

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 2. Pulling apart two separate bodies forcefully

Tearing A Piece Of Paper, Or Breaking A Stick In Half, Etc.

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 3. The Shaking Or Vibration Of One Body.

Music instruments involving chords fall into this category

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4.The Rubbing Or Scraping Of One Hard Surface Against Another

Such as A saw sawing through wood.

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 ‫مخارج الحروف‬
DEFINITION : TYPES : CLASSIFICATION : IDENTIFICATION

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 DEFINITION : ‫مخارج الحروف‬
‫الحروف‬
Linguistic Definition: The edge of anything, and it is said
“this is the harf of such” i.e. its edge.

Applied Definition in Tajweed: The sound which relies on a

makhraj which is exact / ‫ محقق‬or approximate /‫مقدر‬

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 DEFINITION : ‫مخارج الحروف‬
‫مخارج‬
Linguistic Definition: The name of a place where something comes
out from, whatever that thing is.

Applied Definition in Tajweed: The place from which a letter

comes out from, and becomes known and distinguished. It is said it
is the place which originates the letter by restricting the sound
within it exactly or approximately, so wherever the sound is
actually restricted this is exact ‫محقق‬and wherever it is possible to
interrupt the sound there, then this is approximate )‫)مقدر‬
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‫مخارج مقدرة‬

‫مخارج محققة‬
‫™‪Reeyul quloob‬‬
 The Letter Is A Sound That Relies On
A Specific Or Approximate Articulation Point.
Articulation points are two kinds.

2.‫ المخرج المقدر‬: 1.‫ المخرج المحقق‬:

Approximate articulation
Specific articulation point:
point: it is that which does
it is that which relies on a
not rely on a specific place
specific place of the areas
from the areas of the
of the throat, tongue or
throat, or the tongue or
the two lips.
the two lips.
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How To Find The Makhraj Of A Letter?
➢ To find out from which makhraj a letter emanates,

➢ It should be made Sakin or mushaddad (mushaddad is

more effective)
➢ And a hamzah Maftuhah (i.E. With a fathah), maksurah
(with a kasrah) or madhmumah (With a dhammah) should
be read before it.

➢ Where the sound ends, this will be the Makhraj of that

particular letter
➢ Example: ‫أَبْ أَب‬
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Formations Of Arabic Letters Except Alif

‫حروف‬
‫حروف ساكنه‬
‫متحركة‬

‫حروف غير‬ ‫حروف مد و‬

‫ذلك‬ ‫لين‬
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 Saakin Letter
It emerges with the “collision” of two parts.
some scholars referred to this as “striking”
whereby one thing strikes another. The letter
‫ ْم‬is a good example of this concept since the
sound of this letter is formed due to the
“collision” of the two lips together.

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 The Mutaharrik Letter:
This refers to a letter accompanied by one of the 3 Harakaat: the
fat-hah, kasrah, or dhammah.

This sound is formed by pulling two parts apart from each other,
accompanied by the articulation point of the source of its Harakah

There are two functions taking place:

1. The separation of two parts of the mouth
2. The movement of the mouth which produces the origin of the
Harakah: Alif if the Harakah is a fathah, and ‫و‬if the Harakah is a
dhammah, and ‫ ي‬f the Harakah is a kasrah
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Reeyul quloob™
 3. The Letters of Madd And Leen:
The letters of Madd refer to the ‫ ألف‬preceded by a
fat-hah, ‫ ياء‬preceded by kasrah, and ‫ واو‬preceded by
dhammah. These are called letters of Madd because
of their ability to be elongated and stretched. As for
the letters of Leen, then this refers to the letters ‫ياء‬
and ‫ واو‬sukoon preceded by a fat-hah. They are called
letters of Leen because they are articulated with
softness and ease from the mouth, without any
inconvenience of the tongue.
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 All sounds of all of these letters
Are formed by the vibration of the vocal chords in the
throat and are accompanied by:

1. The opening of the mouth with respect to the ‫ألف‬

with the tongue completely relaxed.
2. The complete circling of the lips with respect to ‫واو‬
with the back of the tongue raised to the top.
3. The raising of the middle of the tongue with
respect to ‫ياء‬
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Reeyul quloob™
Free from Articulation
errors
Characteristics Mechanism Points

With Without Nasalisation /

Opposites Opposites Ghunnah
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 ‫الحروف‬

‫أصلية‬ ‫فرعية‬
‫™‪Reeyul quloob‬‬
 ‫الحروف األصلية‬

Alphabet consist of 29 letters,

with known articulation points.

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 ‫الحروف الفرعية‬
➢ It is a letter which articulates from 2 Makhraj

➢ And produce between 2 sounds or between 2

Sifaats like Tafkheem and Tarqeeq etc.

➢ Only 8 sounds in this nature is accepted in the

Quran.

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 ‫ الهمزة المسهلة‬.1
Tasheel is a lightening of the reliance on the articulation point of the hamzah
so that it is read in between a hamzah and the madd letter which matches the
vowel.

This generally happens when 2 Hamzah’s meet nearby.

As to Hafs An Aasim we recite all the Hamzah from its makhraj clearly except
in 4 places. One of them is compulsory and 3 of them have options between 2
rulings.
1. Second hamzaha in the word, in surah Fussilaat aayah 44. it is read
with ‫ تسهيل‬of the second hamzah between a hamzah and an alif.

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These 3 words will have 2 options either in the form
of Tasheel or Ibdaal

1 An- Naml- 59, Yunus -59

2 AnA’am -143/144

3 Yunus 51/91

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 ‫األف الممالة‬
➢ It is to recite between an Alif and Yaa, it is not a complete alif nor
it is a complete Yaa.

➢ Hafs and other ways of recitation read the word in aayah 41 of

Surah Hud with )‫ (إمالة كبرى‬grand imaalah so that the alif after the
ra' is read between an alif and a ya'. This is the only word which
Hafs reads with Imaalah.

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 ‫ الصاد المشمة صوت الزاي‬.3
➢ That is to mix the sound of ‫ زاى‬in the pronunciation of
some of the words.

➢ In Hafs we are not allowed to do in any words. But other

Qiraats they do in following words.

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 ‫ الياء المشمة صوت الواو‬.4
➢ That is to pronounce between a Kesra and a Dammah.

➢ So it will be a sound mixed with waaw and Yaa

➢ In Hafs we are not allowed to do in any words. But

other Qiraats they do in following words.

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 ‫ األلف المفخمة‬.5

➢ The letter alif will be Mufakhham if it comes

after a tafkheem letter.

➢ Letter alif is not a Tafkheem letter nor a Tarqeeq

letter but it will follow the letter before it

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 ‫ الالم المفخمة‬.6

➢ Letter Laam in Lafzhul Jalalah will be dependent on the

harakah of letter before it

➢ If letter before is with a Fatha or a Dhammah then it will be

Tafkheem.

➢ Basically letter Laam is a Tarqeeq letter. So in these

conditions we make the letter Tafkheem

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 ‫ النون المخفاة‬.7

➢ There will be a unclear pronunciation between

the Makhraj of Nun and the Mukhafah letter.

➢ Tip: Remember the word Ikhfa (Hiding)

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 ‫ الميم المخفاة‬.8

There will be a unclear pronunciation between

the Makhraj of Meem and the Mukhafah letter.

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Reeyul quloob™
 ‫الحركات األصلية‬

It is Fatha, Kasra, Dammah only

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 ‫الحركات الفرعية‬

1. Imala: Reciting between a fatha and a kasrah

2. Ishmam : Reciting one letter with 2 harakaath

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‫جزاكم هللا خيرا‬