The pause marks, and al-Fātiḥah letter by letter

This is the last lesson of the stage. It teaches the signs that stand between words rather than on a letter, and three marks that each stand once in the whole Qur’ān. Then it reads al-Fātiḥah letter by letter, with nothing in it that has not had its lesson.

The signs

The pause marks

A pause mark is a small letter, two letters, or three dots, written above the line between two words. It stands on no letter of either word. There are six: ṣalā, qalā, mīm, lā, jīm, and the three dots. They mark where a reader may stop and where a reader should not; which mark means which is the library’s Tajwīd title’s, and this lesson only names them.

Jīm and ṣalā are the common ones, each standing well over a thousand times; mīm and the three dots are rare. The three dots are always written as a pair, over two places near each other in the same verse. Lā stands sixty-eight times, first in 2:25, and mīm twenty-two times, first in 2:26.

The sign of a prostration

A sign set at the end of a verse of prostration. It stands fifteen times in the Qur’ān, always after the last word of its verse, as in 84:21 and 96:19. The lesson says only that it marks such a verse.

Three marks once each

Three marks stand once each in the Qur’ān, on a letter of one word: the hollow mark below, under a rā’ in 11:41; the hollow mark above, over a mīm in 12:11; and the filled mark above, over an alif in 41:44. What each asks of a reader is the Tajwīd title’s.

In the Qur’ān

In each verse below the mark itself is picked out, standing between two words on no letter. Here the mark ṣalā stands after the first word.

The mark jīm stands after the fourth word.

The mark qalā stands after the first word.

The three dots stand as a pair, on either side of the fifth word.

The sign of a prostration stands at the very end, after the last word.

The three marks that stand once each, on the letter of their word.

Al-Fātiḥah letter by letter

Al-Fātiḥah holds no pause mark and no sign of a prostration, so every letter of it is picked out in the first verse below; the one piece left plain is the stretching line that carries a small alif in the third word, from lesson 13. Read it from the right, one letter at a time, naming each letter and each mark on it; then do the same with the words spelled beneath, and with the other six verses in the Qur’ān reader.

Recall

• Where does a pause mark stand?
• How is the pause mark of three dots always written?
• Where does the sign of a prostration stand in its verse?

Answers: between two words, on no letter; as a pair; at the end, after the last word.

Next

This ends the stage. The next stage, Half the Qur’ān, begins with the small words that join the next word.