عَيْن
Where it comes from
All 17 pointsThe middle of the throat وسط الحلق
Halfway up the throat. ʿAyn constricts it and lets the voice through; ḥāʾ narrows the same spot with no voice, a clear hot whisper.
How to write it
The isolated form, shown as one common way to write it — Arabic stroke order is not fixed as rigidly as it is in some scripts.
- Stroke 1 of 2: part of the letter's body.
- Stroke 2 of 2: part of the letter's body.
All four forms
The short gold marks show which sides the letter joins to its neighbours.
Ain connects on both sides, so it has all four forms.
Same shape, different dots
These letters share one skeleton — only the dots tell them apart.
Often confused with
In a word
Isolated
جُوعٍ
juu'
hunger
Initial
عَظِيم
'adheem
great
Medial
نَعْبُدُ
na'bud
we worship
Final
مَطْلَعِ
matla'
rising
In the Quran
الَّذِي أَطْعَمَهُمْ مِنْ جُوعٍ وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ
سورة قريش
صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ
سورة الفاتحة
إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ
سورة الفاتحة
سَلَامٌ هِيَ حَتَّى مَطْلَعِ الْفَجْرِ
سورة القدر
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