شِين
Where it comes from
All 17 pointsThe middle of the tongue وسط اللسان
The middle of the tongue presses up against the roof of the mouth. Jīm closes and releases, shīn spreads the air out sideways, yāʾ glides.
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 5: part of the letter's body.
- Stroke 2 of 5: part of the letter's body.
- Stroke 3 of 5: a dot, added after the body is finished.
- Stroke 4 of 5: a dot, added after the body is finished.
- Stroke 5 of 5: a dot, added after the body is finished.
All four forms
The short gold marks show which sides the letter joins to its neighbours.
Shin 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.
In a word
Isolated
عَرْشٌ
'arsh
throne
Initial
شَرّ
sharr
evil
Medial
يَشْرَب
yashrab
he drinks
Final
قُرَيْشٍ
quraysh
Quraysh (tribe)
In the Quran
رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ
سورة التوبة
مِنْ شَرِّ مَا خَلَقَ
سورة الفلق
عَيْنًا يَشْرَبُ بِهَا عِبَادُ اللَّهِ
سورة الإنسان
لِإِيلَافِ قُرَيْشٍ
سورة قريش
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