بَاء
Where it comes from
All 17 pointsBoth lips الشفتان
The lips close for bāʾ and mīm and release; for wāw they round without closing.
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: a dot, added after the body is finished.
All four forms
The short gold marks show which sides the letter joins to its neighbours.
Ba connects on both sides, so it has all four forms.
Same shape, different dots
Joined inside a word these are written identically — only the dots tell them apart. Their isolated forms differ, which is why the alphabet separates them.
In a word
Isolated
ثَوْبٌ
thawb
garment
Initial
بِسْمِ
bismi
in the name of
Medial
عَبْد
'abd
servant
Final
قَلْبٌ
qalb
heart
In the Quran
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
سورة الفاتحة
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
سورة الفاتحة
إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ
سورة الفاتحة
مَا أَغْنَى عَنْهُ مَالُهُ وَمَا كَسَبَ
سورة المسد
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