## Chapter Two
\n### Lesson Four
\n# Characteristics of the Letters (Sifat al\u2011Huruf)<\/p>\n
These are the sounds and qualities that accompany letters and distinguish them from others. Through them, letters have specific rulings and names, such as:<\/p>\n
**(Strength, Elevation, Qalqalah, Whistling, and other characteristics).**<\/p>\n
The characteristics of the letters are divided into two types:<\/p>\n
> **Essential (intrinsic)** and **Incidental (extrinsic)** qualities.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
# First: Essential (Intrinsic) Characteristics<\/p>\n
These are qualities that permanently accompany a letter in all its states and never separate from it. They are of two types:<\/p>\n
## 1) Oppositional Characteristics (With Their Opposites)<\/p>\n
There are **eight qualities with their opposites**, grouped as follows:<\/p>\n
– Elevation (Ist\u02bfi\u02bfl\u0101\u2019) \u2194 Lowering (Istif\u0101l)
\n– Emphasis (Itb\u0101q) \u2194 Opening (Infit\u0101\u1e25)
\n– Whispering (Hams) \u2194 Voicing (Jahr)
\n– Strength (Shiddah) \u2194 Softness (Rikh\u0101wah)<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
### 1. Elevation (Ist\u02bfi\u02bfl\u0101\u2019)<\/p>\n
It is the heavy (emphatic) sound produced when the back of the tongue rises toward the upper palate.<\/p>\n
Its letters are seven, gathered in the phrase:<\/p>\n
**(\u062e\u0635 \u0636\u063a\u0637 \u0642\u0638)**
\n(kh, \u1e63, \u1e0d, gh, \u1e6d, q, \u1e93)<\/p>\n
Its opposite is **Lowering (Istif\u0101l)**, which is the sound produced when the tongue remains lowered and relaxed.<\/p>\n
The letters of lowering are the remaining **21 letters**.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
### 2. Emphasis (Itb\u0101q)<\/p>\n
It is the raising of the tongue and its pressing against the upper palate with a concave shape in the middle of the tongue.<\/p>\n
Its letters are four:<\/p>\n
**(\u0637\u060c \u0638\u060c \u0635\u060c \u0636)**<\/p>\n
Its opposite is **Opening (Infit\u0101\u1e25)**, whose letters are the remaining **24 letters**.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
### 3. Whispering (Hams)<\/p>\n
It is the soft sound produced by the flow of breath from the lungs through the airway and between the vocal cords **without vibration of the vocal cords**.<\/p>\n
Its letters are ten:<\/p>\n
**(\u062d \u062b \u0647 \u0634 \u062e \u0635 \u0641 \u0633 \u0643 \u062a)**<\/p>\n
They are gathered in the phrase:<\/p>\n
**(\u062d\u062b\u0647 \u0634\u062e\u0635 \u0641\u0633\u0643\u062a)**
\n(“He urged him, so he whispered and became silent.”)<\/p>\n
Its opposite is **Voicing (Jahr)**, which applies to the remaining **18 letters**.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
### 4. Strength (Shiddah)<\/p>\n
It is the prevention of both sound and breath from flowing at the articulation point of the letter.<\/p>\n
Its letters are eight, gathered in the phrase:<\/p>\n
**(\u0623\u062c\u062f\u062a \u0637\u0628\u0642\u0643)**<\/p>\n
Its opposite is **Softness (Rikh\u0101wah)**, which is the flow of sound and breath at the articulation point.<\/p>\n
Its letters are **20 letters**.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
# 2) Independent (Non-Oppositional) Characteristics<\/p>\n
These are five:<\/p>\n
– Qalqalah
\n– Istitalah (Elongation)
\n– Tafashshi (Spreading)
\n– Takrir (Repetition)
\n– Ghunnah (Nasalization)<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
### 1. Qalqalah (Echoing Sound)<\/p>\n
It is a bouncing or echoing sound that accompanies a letter when it is **s\u0101kin (silent)** or when the reciter stops on it.<\/p>\n
Its letters are:<\/p>\n
**(\u0642 \u0637 \u0628 \u062c \u062f)**<\/p>\n
There are two types:<\/p>\n
– **Major Qalqalah (Kubr\u00e1):**
\nWhen the letter occurs at the end of speech while stopping, such as:
\n*al\u2011Hariq, Muhit, al\u2011Buruj.*<\/p>\n
– **Minor Qalqalah (Sughra):**
\nWhen the letter occurs in the middle of a word while continuing recitation, such as:
\n*Qitmir, La\u2011waq\u2018atiha, Yadkhulun.*<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
### 2. Istitalah (Elongation)<\/p>\n
This quality belongs only to the letter **\u1e0c\u0101d (\u0636)**.<\/p>\n
It is the extension of the sound along one side of the tongue (right or left), from its beginning to its end.<\/p>\n
Examples:
\n*\u1e0daraba, \u2018ar\u1e0dan, qa\u1e0d\u0101, i\u1e0d\u1e6durra, fa\u1e0dluhu, wa la\u1e0d-\u1e0d\u0101ll\u012bn.*<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
### 3. Tafashshi (Spreading)<\/p>\n
This characteristic belongs only to the letter **Sh\u012bn (\u0634)**.<\/p>\n
It refers to the spreading of the sound throughout the mouth before it exits.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
### 4. Takrir (Repetition)<\/p>\n
It is the vibration (slight trilling) of the tip of the tongue when pronouncing the letter **R\u0101\u2019 (\u0631)**.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
### 5. Ghunnah (Nasalization)<\/p>\n
It is the nasal sound of **N\u016bn (\u0646)** and **M\u012bm (\u0645)** produced from the nasal passage (the nose).<\/p>\n
The ruling of ghunnah is to sustain it for **two vowel counts (two harakahs)**.<\/p>\n
This ruling appears in four cases:<\/p>\n
– Ikhf\u0101\u2019 (Concealment)
\n– Iql\u0101b (Conversion)
\n– Doubled N\u016bn and M\u012bm
\n– Certain cases of Idgh\u0101m (Assimilation)<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
If you would like, I can also provide a **summary table** organizing all the characteristics in an easy comparison chart for revision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
## Chapter Two ### Lesson Four # Characteristics of the Letters (Sifat al\u2011Huruf) These are the sounds and qualities that accompany letters and distinguish them from others. Through them, letters have specific rulings and names, such as: **(Strength, Elevation, Qalqalah, Whistling, and other characteristics).** The characteristics of the letters are divided into two types: > …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1498],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-koran-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30305"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30310,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30305\/revisions\/30310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}