Islam > Quran > Tajweed > Sifat without counterpart
Updated on 04 October 2026 at 11:01 PM
📖 10 min readThe sifat that have no counterpart number nine, as has been indicated, and here is their detailed exposition:
Its meaning in the language: a sound resembling the song of a bird.
In the terminology: an additional sound that comes out from between the front teeth and the tip of the tongue, upon pronouncing one of its letters.
The letters of safeer are three: the sad, the zay and the seen. The sad resembles the sound of the goose, the zay resembles the sound of the bee, and the seen resembles the sound of the locust; this according to the author of "Nihayat al-Qawl al-Mufid fi 'ilm al-tajwid", p. 53. The strongest of them is the sad, because of the isti'aalah, the itbaq and the safeer it contains; then comes the zay, because of the jahr it contains; then the seen, which is the weakest of them for it is mahmoosa, and hams is concealment, as has been indicated. On this basis, you must therefore bring out the safeer of the seen more than that of the zay, and that of the zay more than that of the sad¹.
Its meaning in the language: disturbance, agitation.
In the terminology: the vibration of the voice upon pronouncing the letter, to the point that a strong intonation is heard in it.
The letters of qalqalah are five, gathered by Imam Ibn al-Jazari in his verses: "qubt jadd". Qalqalah, with regard to its letters, is divided into three degrees: the highest, which is in the emphatic ta; the middle, which is in the jim; and the lowest, which is in the three remaining letters².
Its ranks are four:
The strongest is the mushaddad sakin at a stop (mawquf), as in الحقّ; then comes the non-mushaddad sakin at a stop, as in خلاق; then comes after that the connected sakin (mawsula), as in خلقنا. In these three ranks, the qalqalah reaches the degree of perfection. As for the fourth rank, which is the mutaharrik letter, as in المتقِين, the qalqalah retains only its origin alone, like the ghunnah in the apparent (mudhara) and mutaharrik noon and meem: what remains in it is its origin, not its perfection, as has been indicated.
Its manner of execution:
The scholars have differed about the manner of executing the qalqalah. It has been said: it is closer to the fatha in absolute terms, and this is the most correct opinion; and it has been said: it follows what precedes it: if what precedes it carries a fatha (maftuh), as in أقرب, it is close to the fatha; if what precedes it carries a kasra, as in اقْرأ, it is close to the kasra; and if what precedes it carries a damma, as in اقْتْلوا, it is close to the damma.
It is to this that Sheikh Ibrahim Shahhata refers in "At-Tuhfa as-Sannudiyya fi tajwid al-kalimat al-Qur'aniyya" with his verses:
قلقلة قطب جد وقربت ... لفتح مخرجٍ على الأولى ثبت
كبيرة حيث لدى الوقف أتت ... أكبر حيث عند وقف شددت
"The qalqalah of qubt jadd and of qariba... toward the fatha of its point of articulation, according to the first opinion, that is established / it is great where it comes at a stop... greater still where, at a stop, it is mushaddad".
Its meaning in the language: ease. In the terminology: the emergence of the letter from its point of articulation with ease, without effort for the tongue.
Its letters are two: the waw and the ya sakin whose preceding letter carries a fatha (maftuh), as in خَوْف and بَيْت.
Its meaning in the language: inclination and turning aside. In the terminology: the inclination of the letter, after its emergence from its point of articulation, upon its pronunciation, until it joins another point of articulation.
Its two letters are two: the lam and the ra. They have been described by inhiraaf because they have deviated from their point of articulation until joining another: the lam has a deviation toward the tip of the tongue, and the ra likewise has a deviation toward the back of the tongue, with a slight inclination toward the side of the lam¹.
Its meaning in the language: repetition. In the terminology: the trilling of the tip of the tongue upon pronouncing the letter. The letter of takreer is the ra.
Takreer is a sifah inherent to the letter ra, in the sense that it is liable to occur in it, and one must therefore guard against it; for the purpose of knowing this sifah is to leave it, in the sense of: not exceeding its measure. Takreer most often appears when the ra is mushaddad, as in كرة and مرة: it falls to the reciter to conceal this takreer and not make it apparent, according to the words of Imam Ibn al-Jazari: وأخفِ تكريرًا إذا تشدد "wa-akhfi takreeran idha tashaddad" (and conceal the repetition when it is mushaddad).
Concealing the takreer does not mean totally suppressing the trill of the tip of the tongue, for that would amount to trapping the sound between the tip of the tongue and the gums, as with the letter emphatic ta, and that is a forbidden error. Rather, the tip of the tongue must trill with a single light trill, so that the sifah does not disappear.
The way of safety in this is that the reciter presses the back of his tongue against the roof of his palate, so that the tip of the tongue does not trill much¹.
Its meaning in the language: spreading; it has also been said: expansion².
In the terminology: the dispersion of the breath that comes out between the tongue and the upper palate upon pronouncing the letter. The letter of tafashshee is the sheen.
The sheen was called mutafashshiya because of the dispersion of the breath in the mouth upon its pronunciation, until it reaches the point of articulation of the emphatic za.
Its meaning in the language: extension. In the terminology: the extension of the voice from the beginning of one of the edges of the tongue to its end.
The letter of istitaalah is the dad.
The dad was called mustatil (lengthened) because of the extent of its point of articulation, until it joins the point of articulation of the lam. In the mustatil letter, the voice extends, but it does not reach the measure of the madd letter (mamduda): this is because the mustatil flows within its point of articulation, while the mamduda flows in itself, its point of articulation being estimated (muqaddar).
The difference between the two is that in the mustatil letter the voice flows within its point of articulation to the measure of its length, without exceeding it, the letter not going beyond its attested point of articulation. As for the mamduda letter, it has no attested point of articulation, but an estimated one, as you know: the voice therefore flows in itself, and it is interrupted only by the interruption of the breath¹.
Its meaning in the language: concealment. In the terminology: the concealment of the sound of the letter upon its pronunciation.
The letters of khafaa are four: the three letters of madd and the ha (ه), which the word "hawi" brings together. The khafaa of the letters of madd is due to the vastness of their point of articulation; as for the khafaa of the ha, it is due to the fact that all its sifat are weak, and for this reason it has been reinforced by wasl (connection)². The author of "La'ali al-Bayan" said: والهاء مع حروف مد للخفا "wa-l-ha ma'a huruf maddin lil-khafa" (and the ha, with the letters of madd, is of khafaa).
Its meaning in the language: a sound that resonates in the nose (al-khayshoum).
In the terminology: a pleasant sound composed in the body of the noon and the meem in all circumstances.
The letters of the ghunnah are two: the meem and the noon¹.
The ghunnah, its point of articulation, its duration, its manner of execution and its degrees have already been discussed in the section on the ruling of the mushaddad noon and meem: one may refer back to it.
Thus, if you want to know the sifat of any letter of the alphabet, look for it first among the sifat that have a counterpart, beginning with the two sifah of hams and jahr. If it is found among the letters of hams, which are "fahaththahu shakhsun sakat", it is mahmoosa (whispered); otherwise it is majhoora (voiced).
Then move on to the sifat of shiddah, tawassut and rakhawah: if it is found among the letters of shiddah, which are "ajid qat bakat", it is shadida; if it is found among the letters of tawassut, which are "lin 'umar", it is mutawassita; otherwise it is rakhwa.
Then move on to the two sifat of isti'aalah and istifaal: if it is found among the letters of isti'aalah, it is musta'liya; otherwise it is mustfila. Then move on to the two sifat of itbaq and infitah: if it is found among the letters of itbaq, which are the sad, the dad, the emphatic ta and the emphatic za, it is mutbaqa; otherwise it is munqafata. Then move on to the two sifat of idhlaq and ismat: if it is found among the letters of idhlaq, which are "firr min lub", it is mudhlaqa; otherwise it is musmata. Up to this point, the letter has therefore taken five sifat.
Then move on to the nine sifat that have no counterpart and look for it among them: if it possesses one of them, that sifah is the sixth, in addition to the five preceding sifat. And this occurs only for the following nineteen letters: the sad, the zay, the seen, the qaf, the emphatic ta, the ba, the jim, the dal, the waw and the ya sakin whose preceding letter carries a fatha, the lam, the sheen, the dad, the ha (ه), the three letters of madd, the meem and the noon.
Each of these letters has six sifat, and there is no letter with seven sifah except the ra.
In summary: the sifat of any letter of the alphabet do not fall below five and do not rise above seven. To make them easier to approach, here is a table of the letters of the alphabet: we begin with the letters that have only five sifat, then those that have six, then those that have seven.
It is the ra.
If you look carefully at the preceding tables, it will appear to you that some letters are identical in their sifat, and here is their exposition:
وَلَمَّا جَآءَ مُوسَىٰ لِمِيقَـٰتِنَا وَكَلَّمَهُۥ رَبُّهُۥ قَالَ رَبِّ أَرِنِىٓ أَنظُرْ إِلَيْكَ ۚ قَالَ لَن تَرَىٰنِى وَلَـٰكِنِ ٱنظُرْ إِلَى ٱلْجَبَلِ فَإِنِ ٱسْتَقَرَّ مَكَانَهُۥ فَسَوْفَ تَرَىٰنِى ۚ فَلَمَّا تَجَلَّىٰ رَبُّهُۥ لِلْجَبَلِ جَعَلَهُۥ دَكًّۭا وَخَرَّ مُوسَىٰ صَعِقًۭا ۚ فَلَمَّآ أَفَاقَ قَالَ سُبْحَـٰنَكَ تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ وَأَنَا۠ أَوَّلُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ
Surah 7, 143: Example from the book: the mushaddad ra of خر carries takreer (trill of the tongue), a sifah without counterpart.
ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
Surah 1, 3: Example from the book: the mushaddad ra of الرحيم carries takreer, to be controlled without excess.
فَرِحَ ٱلْمُخَلَّفُونَ بِمَقْعَدِهِمْ خِلَـٰفَ رَسُولِ ٱللَّهِ وَكَرِهُوٓا۟ أَن يُجَـٰهِدُوا۟ بِأَمْوَٰلِهِمْ وَأَنفُسِهِمْ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَقَالُوا۟ لَا تَنفِرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْحَرِّ ۗ قُلْ نَارُ جَهَنَّمَ أَشَدُّ حَرًّۭا ۚ لَّوْ كَانُوا۟ يَفْقَهُونَ
Surah 9, 81: Example from the book: the mushaddad ra of شد carries takreer (sifah without counterpart).
ٱهْدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٰطَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ
Surah 1, 6: Example from the book: the sad of the word صراط illustrates safeer (whistling), a sifah without counterpart.