Letters

Question 1

How many heavy letters and what are they?

Answer 1

7:
خ ص ض ط ظ غ ق

Question 2

How many temporarily heavy letters are there and what are they?

Answer 2

3:
ا ل ر

Question 3

When do the temporarily heavy letters become heavy? Give examples

Answer 3

• Alif becomes heavy when it is attached to a heavy letter with a fathah.
• e.g. ضَا
• Laam is always light except in the word Allah. Laam is heavy in the word Allah when it is preceeded by a fathah or dammah.
• When the word Allah is preceeded by a kasrah, then the laams are pronounced as light.
• e.g. heavy in رَسُولُ الله
• e.g. light in بِسْمِ الله
• Raa is heavy when it has a fathah or dammah on it. It is light with a kasrah.
• e.g. heavy: رَ رُ

Question 4

Which letters do not join on the left (to the letter after it)?

Answer 4

ا د ذ ر ز و

Question 5

What is the purpose of hamza and where is it found?

Answer 5

In Madani script, hamza gives the aa, ee, or oo sound. Alif has no harakah and is used only for madd. Hamza gives the sound for the madd alif. It can also give sound to the other madd letters waw and yaa.
It can be:
- On its own
- On top of alif, waw or yaa: أ ؤ ئ
- Below alif: إ

Question 6

What is harakah and what are the main 3?
What movement and sounds happens with each?

Answer 6

Harakah means movement. It refers to marks on letters which show their vowel sounds (aa, ee, oo).

• Fathah َ : opening the mouth (aa)
• Kasrah ِ : lowering the lower jaw (ee)
• Dammah ُ : rounding and protruding the lips (oo)

Question 7

What is the timing for a harakah?

Answer 7

1 count or 1 second - no madd

Question 8

What changes happen in the mouth to make a letter heavy?

Answer 8

• Raise the back of the tongue towards the soft palette
• Curve the middle of the tongue
• Raise the sound up towards the roof of the mouth
• Fill the whole mouth with the echo of the sound of the letter