The letter Qaf

قَاف

Where it comes from

All 17 points

The back of the tongue, soft palate أقصى اللسان مع الحنك اللين

The very back of the tongue rises to the soft part of the roof of the mouth and cuts the air off completely.

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.

1234
  1. Stroke 1 of 4: part of the letter's body.
  2. Stroke 2 of 4: part of the letter's body.
  3. Stroke 3 of 4: a dot, added after the body is finished.
  4. Stroke 4 of 4: a dot, added after the body is finished.

All four forms

قIsolated
ق‍Initial
‍ق‍Medial
‍قFinal

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

Qaf 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.

Often confused with

In a word

Isolated

رِزْقٌ

rizq

provision

Initial

قَ‍‍دْر

qadr

decree/power

Medial

مُسْتَ‍‍قِ‍‍يمَ

mustaqeem

straight

Final

فَلَ‍‍قِ

falaq

daybreak

In the Quran

IsolatedAdh-Dhariyat 51:58

إِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ الرَّزَّاقُ ذُو الْقُوَّةِ الْمَتِينُ

سورة الذاريات

InitialAl-Ikhlas 112:1

قُ‍‍لْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ

سورة الإخلاص

MedialAl-Fatiha 1:6

اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَ‍‍قِ‍‍يمَ

سورة الفاتحة

FinalAl-Falaq 113:1

قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ الْفَلَ‍‍قِ

سورة الفلق

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