Sukūn

The last lesson taught the three marks that give a letter its vowel. This lesson teaches the mark that says a letter has none.

The mark

Sukūn is a small circle written above a letter. It means that no vowel follows the letter. The transliteration writes such a letter by itself, with no vowel after it, as the cards show.

A word may carry more than one sukūn. How a letter with sukūn is sounded, and how it meets the letter after it, is taught in the library's Tajwīd title.

A bare letter is not a letter with sukūn

Some letters in this print are written bare, with neither a vowel mark nor a sukūn. That is not the same as sukūn. The yā’ of the last word of the first verse of al-Fātiḥah is bare: it is one of the long vowel letters of lesson 13. A lām that follows the alif at the start of a word is sometimes bare: lesson 17 explains when. The print leaves a few other letters bare for reasons that later lessons give. A letter with sukūn carries its small circle, and you can see it. One other small circle is written in this print, over an alif, a wāw or, rarely, a yā’ in certain words: it is a sign of the muṣḥaf's own, taught in lesson 19, and not a sukūn.

In the Qur’ān

Every verse of al-Fātiḥah has at least one sukūn. The first word of the first verse has it on sīn: bā’ with kasrah, sīn with sukūn, mīm with kasrah.

The first word of the second verse has it twice, on lām and on mīm.

The second word of the fourth verse has it on wāw. Here the wāw carries the circle and is a letter with sukūn; a wāw written bare is a long vowel, as lesson 13 shows.

The third word of the last verse has it on nūn and on mīm. Its first letter is an alif with a hamzah seated on it, taught in lesson 15.

Look through the other words of the sūrah in lessons 1 to 9 and find the small circle in each.

Recall

• What does sukūn look like, and where is it written?
• What does it mean?
• Is a letter with no mark at all the same as a letter with sukūn?

Answers: a small circle above the letter; that no vowel follows the letter; no, a bare letter is something else, which later lessons explain.

Next

The next lesson teaches shaddah, the mark of a doubled letter.