The heavy and the light letters

 

The heavy and the light letters
الحروف المفخمة والمرققة
 

In Arabic alphabet there heavy letters and light letters; there are heavy letters all the time, and there are light letters all the time, and are letters which are heavy in cases and light in another cases ( temporary heavy letters) ; so, we have three groups of heavy and lights letters

1 - Heavy letters (all the time) الحروف المفخمة

2 – Light letters (all the time) الحروف المرققة

3 – Temporary heavy letters

 

Let's begin with the first type

 

1 - Heavy letters (all the time) الحروف المفخمة

There are 7 heavy letters all the time in Arabic alphabet.

These letters are: خ ، ص ، ض ، غ ، ط ، ق ، ظ

They are formed in a sentence: خص ضغط قظ

These letters as we say are heavy in all its cases but the degree of heaviness maybe different form case to another.

The way of pronouncing of a heavy letter

The heavy letters have the quality of Isti’laa “rising high”. Because while pronouncing them, a part of the tongue (mostly the back part) rises up to the roof makes the letter sound heavy.

 

Examples

 

الْحَاقَّةُ – الْغَيْبُ – الْغَاشِيَةِ - خَاشِعَةً أَبْصَارُهُمْ - غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ - الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ - ظِلًّا ظَلِيلًا

 

2 – Light letters (all the time) الحروف المرققة

All the letters other than the heavy letters and the temporary heavy and light letters.

The way of pronouncing light letters

The Light Letters have the quality of Istifaal  “falling down”, by lowering the tongue when pronouncing the light letter.

Examples

 

3 – Temporary heavy letters

Temporary heavy letters as we said recently are letters which are heavy in cases and light in cases. We'll divide them in four types:

 

1 - Alif Madd الف المد

2 - The Ghunnah for Ikhfaa Haqiqiغنة الإخفاء الحقيقى

3 - The Laam of The Exalted Name of Allah لام لفظ الجلالة (الله)

4 - Raa' letter being heavy or light الراء المفخمة او المرققة

 

Let's begin with the first type :

 

1 - Alif Madd الف المد

The quality of Alif Madd being heavy or light depends on the letter preceding Alif Madd. If the letter before Alif Madd was heavy, so Alif Madd should accordingly take a heavy sound.

Examples

الضَّالِّينَ – وَالْقَائِمِينَ - خَاشِعَةً  - خَالِدِينَ – يُرَاءُونَ - خَتَمَ اللَّهُ


And if the letter before Alif Madd was light, so Alif Madd should accordingly take a light sound.

 

Examples

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ – إِيَّاكَ - قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ – النَّاسِ - مِنَ السَّمَاءِ

 

2 - The Ghunnah for Ikhfaa Haqiqiغنة الإخفاء الحقيقى

If the following letter is heavy Gunnah should be heavy.

If the following letter is light, Gunnah should be light.

We'll study and give more examples in the lesson of Rules of Noon Saakinah and Tanween.

 

3 - The Laam of The Exalted Name of Allah لام لفظ الجلالة (الله)

This is one of the temporary Qualities

a) If there is a Fatha or a Dhamma before the word of Allah or Allahum, then laam in Allah will be heavy.

وَاللَّهُ - خَتَمَ اللَّهُ

يُخَادِعُونَ اللَّهَ - ذَهَبَ اللَّهُ بِنُورِهِمْ - فَزَادَهُمُ اللَّهُ مَرَضًا


b) If there is a kasrah before the word Allah, then the Laam in Allah or Allahum will be light

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ - مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ  - رِزْقِ اللَّهِ


c) If the reader starts reading with the name of Allah, then Laam in Allah or Allahom will be heavy.

 

اللَّهُ يَسْتَهْزِئُ بِهِمْ - اللَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّوم

We can sum up the rules of the exalted name of Allah in the following diagram



4 - Raa' letter being heavy or light الراء المفخمة او المرققة

 

Cases of Raa' being heavy or light are 3 types;

1 - Raa' being heavy in 8 cases

2 - Raa' being light in 4 cases

3 - Raa' being heavy or light "the reader can read it heavy or light" in 2 cases

 

Let's clarify every type of these three types:

1 - Cases of Raa' being heavy

As we said in 8 cases:

1.     If Raa' has fathah as in رَمَضَانَ

 

2.     If Raa' has sukoon and the letter before it has fathah as in مَرْيَمَ

3.     If Raa' has sukoon and the letter before it has sukoon also (except yaa letter) and the letter after it has fathah as in وَالْعَصْرِ

4.     If Raa' has Dhammah as in كَفَرُوا

5.     If Raa' has sukoon and the letter before it has Dhammah as in الْقُرْآنُ  

6.     If Raa' has sukoon and the letter before it has sukoon and the letter before it has Dammah as in خُسْرْ

7.     If Raa' has sukoon and the letter before it has a temporary Kasrah (either written or spoken) as in  ارْجِعُوا - الَّذِي ارْتَضَى لَهُمْ

8.     If Raa' has sukoon and the letter before it has kasrah and the letter after it is an Isti’laa letter without kasrah as in  وَإِرْصَادًا – قِرْطَاسٍ - فِرْقَةٍ

 

2 - Cases of Raa' being light

As we said in 4 cases  

1.     If Raa' has Kasrah as in  كَرِيمٌ – رِيحٍ

2.     If Raa' has sukoon and the letter before it has an original sukoon (not temporary sukoon) and there isn't an an Isti’laa letter after it as in فِرْعَوْنَ

3.     If Raa' has sukoon and the letter before has sukoon and isn't an an Isti’laa letter and the letter before it has kasrah as in حِجْرْ – قَدِيرْ

4.     If Raa' has sukoon and the letter before it is yaa leen with sukoon as in  لَا ضَيْرْ - خَيْرْ

3 - Cases of Raa' being either heavy or light

As we said in two cases:

1.     If Raa' has sukoon and the letter before it has sukoon and the letter after it is an an Isti’laa letter with kasrah if we complete reading it with the word after it or we stop with Raom on it (the Ra'om is to stop on the word with some beat of kasrah, fathah, or Dammah) and this in the word   فِرْقٍ كَالطَّوْدِ. But if we stop on the word فِرْقٍ with sukoon (temporary sukoon) فِرْقْ we should pronounce it heavy because the cause of being light is removed which is giving kasrah to the Isti’laa letter which is Qaaf ق

2.      If Raa' has sukoon and the letter before it is an Isti’laa letter with sukoon and the letter before it has kasrah and that on stopping with temporary sukoon on مِصْرَ – الْقِطْرِ.  But if we don't stop on these words and complete reading them with the next words, the Raa' in مِصْرَ is heavy because it has fathah and the Raa' in الْقِطْرِ is light because it has kasrah


 we can download the whole lesson with diagram from Here or  Here 

 

 

 

 

 


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