Sifaat al-huruf are the characteristics of the Arabic letters: the qualities in how a letter is produced that distinguish it from other letters made in the same place. A sifah (characteristic, plural sifaat) describes what the breath, the voice and the tongue are doing at the moment a letter is formed, and two letters that share a makhraj (the point where a letter is formed) are told apart by nothing else. Most textbooks list seventeen, arranged as five pairs of opposites and seven that stand alone, though scholars count them differently. This article follows Hafs 'an 'Asim; the sifaat belong to the letters themselves and do not change between qira'at (transmitted readings), but a few of their applications do.
What a sifah is and why the count varies
The seventeen makharij tell you where a letter is made. Several of them produce more than one letter: the tip of the tongue against the upper front teeth gives ت, د and ط, and the tip near the lower front teeth gives س, ز and ص. Position alone cannot separate those, so the classical scholars catalogued the qualities of each letter.
The count of seventeen is the most widely taught and follows Ibn al-Jazari, whose poem on Tajweed many students still memorise. Some scholars leave out the pair of idhlaq and ismat because it has little effect on pronunciation, giving fifteen or sixteen; others add ghunnah (the nasal resonance of noon and meem) and reach higher figures. The letters do not change; only the labelling does, so learn the list your teacher uses.
The five pairs of opposites
Every letter has exactly one sifah from each pair.
Hams and jahr. Hams (whispering) means breath continues to flow while the letter is made, because the closure at the makhraj is weak. Its ten letters are gathered in the phrase fahathahu shakhsun sakat: ف ح ث ه ش خ ص س ك ت. Jahr (voicing) is the opposite, where the breath is held back and the letter sounds firm; all the other letters have it.
Shiddah, rakhawah and tawassut. Shiddah (strength) means the sound stops completely when the letter is made, because the makhraj closes fully. Its eight letters are remembered as ajid qatin bakat: أ ج د ق ط ب ك ت. Rakhawah (softness) means the sound continues to flow, as in ث, س or ه. Between the two sits tawassut (moderation), for the five letters of lin 'umar, ل ن ع م ر, where the sound is partly held and partly released.
Isti'la and istifal. Isti'la (elevation) means the back of the tongue rises towards the roof of the mouth, and its seven letters are the heavy ones: خ ص ض غ ط ق ظ. Istifal (lowering) is the opposite and belongs to the rest. This pair is the foundation of tafkheem and tarqeeq, the heavy and light reading of letters.
Itbaq and infitah. Itbaq (closing) means the tongue presses up towards the palate along its length as well as at the back, and it belongs to four letters, ص ض ط ظ, which are the fullest of the heavy group. Infitah (opening) means the tongue leaves a space, and is the property of every other letter.
Idhlaq and ismat. Idhlaq (fluency) belongs to the six letters of fir min lub, ف ر م ن ل ب, made at the lips or tongue tip and considered easy to pronounce. Ismat (restraint) belongs to the rest. This pair changes nothing about how a letter is read, which is why some teachers pass over it.
The seven without opposites
- Safeer (whistling): a high, sharp sound made by ص, ز and س.
- Qalqalah (echo): a bounce of sound on a sakin ق, ط, ب, ج or د, explained in our guide to qalqalah.
- Leen (softness): the easy, gliding quality of waw and yaa when they are sakin after a fathah, as in bayt and khawf.
- Inhiraf (deviation): in ل and ر, the sound turns aside from its makhraj rather than leaving it straight.
- Takreer (repetition): the tendency of the tongue tip to flutter on ر. It is listed so that the reader can control it; a rolled raa is a fault, as our article on the rules of raa explains.
- Tafashi (spreading): the wide diffusion of air across the mouth on ش.
- Istitalah (extension): the sound of ض running along the side of the tongue to the front, which is why ض is often called the hardest letter to master.
A makhraj tells you where two letters are born; the sifaat tell you why they are not twins.
Why the sifaat matter: three pairs that sound alike
Consider ت and ط. Both are made with the tip of the tongue at the roots of the upper front teeth, and both have shiddah. Yet ت has hams, istifal and infitah, while ط has jahr, isti'la and itbaq. A reader whose ط sounds like ت has the makhraj right and the sifaat wrong.
Now س and ص. Both come from the tongue tip near the lower front teeth, and both have hams, rakhawah and safeer. The only difference is isti'la and itbaq on ص. That is why the two words for prayer and peace, salaah and salaam, hang on a single quality.
Finally د and ض. Here the makhraj differs, but so does almost everything else: د has shiddah and qalqalah, while ض has rakhawah, isti'la, itbaq and istitalah. A ض that comes out as a heavy د has lost its extension and softness at once, the substitution teachers hear most from readers whose first language has no ض. Our article on commonly confused Arabic letters is a practical companion here.
How a teacher hears sifaat
A teacher does not check each letter against a seventeen-item list. An experienced listener hears the sifaat as sound, not as labels: a ط that lacks fullness, a ث that lacks breath, a ب that lacks bounce. They notice the wrong quality and name it so the student knows what to change; the correction itself is by ear.
This is also why sifaat are best learned in small groups rather than as one list. Take hams and jahr for a week and feel the breath on your hand. Take shiddah and rakhawah next and notice which letters can be held and which cannot. Add isti'la and itbaq when you work on heavy letters. By the time you reach the singles, most of them will already be in your mouth, and the list will simply give them names.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to memorise all seventeen sifaat?
Most teachers ask for the mnemonic phrases of the pairs and the letters of the singles, because they make correction faster. What matters more is producing the quality on demand; a reader who can make the breath flow on a hams letter has learned hams whether or not they can recite the list.
Why do some books say sixteen and others say more?
Because the sifaat are a way of describing the letters, not a fixed set handed down with them. Some authors drop idhlaq and ismat as irrelevant to recitation, and some add ghunnah or subdivide the strong and weak qualities. The underlying sounds are the same in every book.
Which sifaat make a letter strong or weak?
Scholars grade the sifaat into strong and weak, and a letter with more strong qualities, such as ط, is called a strong letter, while one with more weak qualities, such as ف or ه, is called weak. The grading matters mainly in discussions of merging and is not something a beginner needs.
Is heaviness a sifah or a rule?
Isti'la is the sifah; tafkheem is the effect it has on the sound. The seven isti'la letters are always heavy, while raa, the laam of Allah and alif are heavy or light according to rules that draw on the vowels around them rather than on a fixed quality of the letter.
Are leen letters the same as madd letters?
No. Waw and yaa are madd letters when they follow a vowel that matches them and are held long. They are leen letters when they follow a fathah and are sakin, as in bayt. The madd rules describe what happens when a leen letter meets a stop.
Have your letters described back to you
A sifah you cannot hear in your own recitation is one you cannot fix, and the quickest way to hear it is a teacher pointing at the quality that is missing. Our Tajweed course works through the sifaat one pair at a time on a private video call. Start with a free first class and read a few lines; the teacher will tell you which qualities are already secure and which letters need their sifaat rebuilt.
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