The letter Fa

فَاء

Where it comes from

All 17 points

The lower lip and upper teeth باطن الشفة السفلى

The inside of the lower lip meets the edges of the upper front teeth and the air hisses between them.

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.

123
  1. Stroke 1 of 3: part of the letter's body.
  2. Stroke 2 of 3: part of the letter's body.
  3. Stroke 3 of 3: a dot, added after the body is finished.

All four forms

فIsolated
ف‍Initial
‍ف‍Medial
‍فFinal

The short gold marks show which sides the letter joins to its neighbours.

Fa 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

خَوْفٌ

khawf

fear

Initial

فِ‍‍ي

fee

in

Medial

نَ‍‍فْ‍‍سٍ

nafs

soul

Final

كَهْ‍‍فٌ

kahf

cave

In the Quran

IsolatedQuraysh 106:4

الَّذِي أَطْعَمَهُمْ مِنْ جُوعٍ وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ

سورة قريش

InitialAl-Fil 105:2

أَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ كَيْدَهُمْ فِ‍‍ي تَضْلِيلٍ

سورة الفيل

MedialAsh-Shams 91:7

وَنَ‍‍فْ‍‍سٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا

سورة الشمس

FinalAl-Kahf 18:10

إِذْ أَوَى الْفِتْيَةُ إِلَى الْكَهْ‍‍فِ

سورة الكهف

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