Background (Arabic alphabets) In the Arabic language we have (29) letters characters -.

. Every one should be familiar with how to pronounce and write them. Here is what you are supposed to know1: 1Read each letter when it is written separately from all other letters. For example when you see ( )(, )or ( )you should know how it is pronounced. If you have a difficulty pronouncing one of these letters, then look for an Arabic speaking friend (or a non-Arabic speaker but knows how to pronounce the letters) and ask them to teach you this. 2Write each letter separately. For example, if you hear someone pronouncing the letter ( )or ( )you should know how to write it. 3Learn (memorize) the order of the letters. This is like knowing that the English alphabets are ordered as (A B C D E F etc). The order of the Arabic letters is given in this document. 4Learn how to pronounce the letters with "movements"2 ( .)For example for the letter ( )you should know how pronounce each of the following (, (

)) and ( .)You should master this for all letters.

Learn how to recognize letters depending on their position in the word. For example, you already know from step one that the letter ( )is written like this when not
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If you are new to the Arabic language, then make sure you follow the order of these steps. Meaning, don't go to step 2 unless you master step 1. 2 "Movement" is the direct translation of the Arabic word " ."This is because there is a movement of the mouth associated with each of these "movements". For example ( )you open (move) your mouth up, ( )you spread (move) your mouth to the sides like if you are smiling, and ( )you get your lips closer (move) to each other as you do when you pronounce the English letter (O). Note that for many Arabic books for English speakers they translate " "as a short vowel.
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associated with any other letter. Here you should know that the following forms are also (.)(: ) The following material will help everyone review the five steps. 1. Order of Arabic alphabets: There are three main different ways of ordering the Arabic letters3. You just need to know one of them, which is common nowadays and taught in all Arabic schools in the Arab world. According to this method, the Arabic letters are ordered as the following (make sure you start reading from right to left):

- - The letter ( )is actually the letter ( )which is similar to the first
letter ( ) except that it does not have ( )on top of it. However, both letters are pronounced differently. What is so special about the letter ( )is that it can't be pronounced separately and it has to be preceded by one of the letters. By convention, people make the letter ( )as the preceding letter. This is why it is written ( .) = + However, it could have been written as: (4.) ... 2. Arabic letters with movements: There are three movements that can be put in any letter: short tilted dash written above the letter : ( )
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The first method is the method presented above. The second method orders the letters according to the place where they are pronounced from. For example, letters pronounced from the throat are before the letters pronounced from the tongue, and letters pronounced from the tongue are before pronounced from the lips. This method has been adopted by man old Arabic grammar and Tajweed scholars. The third method orders the letters according to some style called ( .) This style still exists to nowadays. Nevertheless, the first method is the most common one nowadays. 4 Based on the above description, you might feel that this letter is a very special letters. Actually, there is a debate among many Arabic scholars if it should be counted as a letter or not. For those not counting it, they will consider it as a special case of the letter ( .)We don't want to argue here which method is more accurate. But since we are studying the Arabic language for the sake of understanding the Quran, we have followed the method that counts it as a separate letter. This method has been followed by all Tajweed scholars because it will make reading the Quran much easier.

short tilted dash written below the letter : ( ) 2- : ( ) 3- small version of the letter ( )written above the letter. If the letter has none of the above movements, then we say it has a ( , )which is donated as ( ) (small circle written above the letter). Here are three rules of thumb: (i) The first letter of any word should have one of the three movements and can't by any mean take the ( .) (ii) If you are reading any Arabic sentence then the last letter that you stop on should have 5() (iii) Any letter being not the first or the letter that you stop on can have any of the four movements. Table (1) has all Arabic letters with the four different movements. Practice pronouncing all of them:

This rule is true when reading the Quran or most of the Arabic texts. However, there are some Arabic texts that require stopping with one of the movements, e.g. poetry.

General comments: 1Generally, if the letter ( )or ( )has a ( )then we normally don't put any thing on it. That is a common practice and this is how you will find it in the Quran6.
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This is the general case in the Quran when the letter ( )is preceded by a letter that has ( )or when the letter ( )is preceded by a letter that has ( .)However, there are other cases where the movement is put on the two letters. What we would like to emphasize here, if you find a letter that has

The letter ( )which is written as ( , )the letter ( )if preceded by a letter that has ( , )and the letter ( )if preceded by a letter that has ( )are called the Arabic vowels. These can only have (( )which is normally not written) and can not have any other movement. These three letters as we will see in some of the coming lectures has a special treatment in the Quran and many of the Tajweed rules depend on them. 3The Arabic letter ( )if has a ( )on it then will be written like this ( .)So if you see this ( )then know it has a ( )though it is not written.
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3- Writing Arabic letters: In the Arabic language when you write any single word you have to connect its entire letters together. Every connected group of letters forms a word. The Arabic alphabets can be categorized in terms of how they are connected into three main categories: Group (1) : Letters that you can connect them with letters before and after them. These letters include: For example: the letter ( )is always connected regardless where it is: The only exception is when these letters are preceded with any of the letters of Group (2). For example: () Group (2): Letters of this group has the following characteristics: i) If they are at the beginning of the word, then nothing can connect to them. Examples: ii) If they are preceded by any letter of Group (1) then they will connect to them. Examples:
no movement, then know it has an "implicit" on it.

iii) if they are not the first letter and they are preceded or followed by any letter of the same group, then they will not connect to them. Examples: Group (3) This has only one letter ( .)This letter has very complicated rules of how to write it based on its location in the word and its movement. Don't worry about these rules for now. You just need to know that if you see any of the following forms then it is actually (( The following table shows how each letter is written depending on its location: All End Middle Beginning Letter

Final comments: 1- The letter ( )has special treatment when written at the end of the word. There are 2 ways to write it, either or .For now, you don't need to know when to write each method. You only need to know that the second method ( , )when you are reading, if it is your last word that you pronounce then you read it as the letter ( ,)otherwise, your pronounce it (.) 2- Sometimes, the letter ( )is written as ( )if it is the last letter in the word. ( )is similar to the last letter ( )except it does not have two dots below. Don't bother yourself about when to use each of the two shapes; just keep in mind that ( )is actually (.)