The Quran is characterized by a unique phenomenon never found in any other book; 29 suras are prefixed with 14 different sets of "Quranic Initials," consisting of one to five letters per set. Fourteen letters, half the Arabic alphabet, participate in these initials. The significance of the Quranic initials remained a divinely guarded secret for 14 centuries.

The Quranic Initials constitute a major portion of the Quran's 19-based. mathematical miracle. These initials include, ALM, ALR, ALMR, ALMS,Q, KHY'AS, S, YS, TH, TSM ,TS, HM, HM, 'ASQ and NUN. For easy reference, we used the English alphabet in place of the Arabic ones, e.g. for the Alif (Alef) , we used "A", for the Lam, we used "L", for the Meem, we used "M", for the Reh, we used "R" , for the Seen, we used "S", for the Sad, we used the underlined bold "S"....etc.

Counting most of the initials is easy as their Rasm can be easily identified. Few alphabets however can be problematic to those who are not familiar with the Arabic language or those who know Arabic but are not familiar with the writings of the Quran. The writings of the Quran differ from modern Arabic writings in several aspects. Most of the Qurans are written after the Uthmanic Rasm (Orthography) which is not taught at schools these days. We wrote this short essay to make it easy for those willing to count the initials to avoid the difficulties we met when we started counting these initials. The letters Alif, Haa and Yaa are the ones with some difficulty as will be explained later.

Counting the Alif (Alef):

The letter Alif in Arabic is easy to spot and easy to count. There are few other languages that use the same Arabic Alphabets and for those who speak and read these languages, e.g. Farsi or Urdu, they will have no problem counting. The letter alif (or alef) can be seen in these four shapes The alif that looks like this, , is not used in the original Qurans, but only in the more recent editions of the Quran. As for the "Tashkeel" which is the small marks written on top of or under the 28 Arabic alphabets, they are explained at the bottom of this page.

The Hamza is unique in Arabic in many respects. Hamza, most of the time, is used as alif. Hamza can be used also as a yaa or a waw .

Here are the different forms of Hamza. Of all the seven forms mentioned below, only the first three types are considered as alif. Notice that number 3 is actually a standing free hamza as it is a hamza written between the lam and the alif.

Here are the different forms of Hamzas:

1. Standing free hamzas: These are counted as alifs. examples of standing free Hamzas like: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
2. hamzas written on an extension (Madda): are counted as alifs. examples; , , , , , , , , ,
3. hamzas written on a Lam- Alif, in between the Lam and the Alif:
   Hamzas written on a Lam Alif , in words where the alif is actually a hamza and an alif, is the most deceiving as it looks like two alifs but actually it is three alifs (two alifs and a hamza) for example , . If you look carefully at these words you will notice the insistence of the scribes to write the Hamza in these words between the Lam and the alif . Compare these words with other words that only has lam alif as in , where there is only one lam and one alif , the hamza is specially positioned on top of the alif.
4. hamzas written on top of a stem (Nabra): is counted as a yaa NOT as an alif. For example: , , , , ,
5. hamzas written under a stem (Nabra): is counted as a yaa, not as an alif. For example: , , , , , ,
6. hamzas written on a yaa: is counted as a yaa, NOT as an alif, whether the hamza is written above or below the yaa, as in , , , , , .
7. hamzas written on a Waw: is counted as a waw , not as an alif, as in: , , , , , .

Now that we have computer programs to count these Arabic Alphabets, the count should be easy, however, you have to be sura that the computer Arabic text is corrected according to the Uthmanic Rasm.

Counting the Haa:

The Haa comes in many shapes,

Counting the Haa should be easy but most of the people do not know that the final Ta of a word is usually written as a closed Ta (Ta Marboota) , and therefore counted as a Haa. Examples of such words are , The Quran follows this common rule selectively to preserve the number of Haa in a sura.

The Muslim scholars as well as the Christian missionaries and Orientalists exchanged heated debates for centuries about the writing of some of the Ta as an open Ta instead of a closed Ta (Ta Marboota). Unaware of the divine plan of the Mathematical Miracle of the Quran they came up with all kinds of accusations and silly responses with no avail. None of them really knew why God chose for some words an open Ta instead of a closed Ta and vice verse. The discovery of the Mathematical Miracle of the Quran clarified this matter.

The word "Rahmat" (mercy) is usually written with a closed Ta, even in most of the verses in the Quran, but it is written as an open Ta in verse 2 of sura 19, while written as a closed Ta in 19:21 . It turns out that Sura 19 has the Initial KHY'AS and the count of the Ha is very significant as it controls the total number of the alphabets forming the initial to be a multiple of 19. Has the word "Rahmat" been written with a closed Ta, the sura would have an extra Ha in it and the total of the initial would never be a multiple of 19 and the phenomenon of the mathematical miracle of the Quran would have disappeared. This is a proof of God's protecting and preserving the Quran and a proof of the the Quran's miracle at work.

Counting the Yaa, "Y":

The letter "Y" or Yaa is written in the Quran in two forms; one is obvious and the other is subtle. The subtle form of the letter may be confusing to those who are not thoroughly familiar with the Arabic language.

Some examples of the words with obvious Yaa: , , ,

A good example of the subtle "Y", Yaa is the word "Araany" which is mentioned twice in 12:36. The letter "Y", Yaa is used twice in this word, the first Yaa is subtle and the second is obvious. Sura 36 does not contain a single "Y", Yaa of the subtle type. This is a remarkable phenomenon, and one that does not normally occur in a long sura like Sura 36.

Other examples of the subtle "Y", Yaa: , , . In sura 19 which has Yaa in its initial, the word can be seen in verse 94 and is clearly written with a subtle Yaa. However in some Egyptian editions of the Quran, the word "Awsany" in verse 31 is also written in some editions with a subtle Yaa and sometimes not while the word is keeping its subtle Yaa. Writing both words with a subtle Yaa will disturb the total number of Yaa in sura 19. In some Egyptian editions when the word "Awsany" was written with a subtle Yaa, the word was written without its subtle Yaa and in this case the total number of Yaa stay the same like the total we have and which is supported by the miracle of 19. On our site as part of Quran Inspector we used the text of King Fahd edition which has no subtle Yaa in the word "Awsany" in verse 31 while having a subtle Yaa in in verse 94.

Hamza written on top of a yaa or under a yaa is counted as a yaa, as in , .

Hamzas written on top of a stem (Nabra), or under a stem is counted as a yaa. For example: , , , ,

Arabic Alphabets and how they look in different locations in a word.

initial form means how the alphabet appears in the beginning of the word or in the middle of a word if it follows some Arabic alphabets that do not connect with it, e.g. alif, Dal , Thal, Reh, zen, waw....

Medial form means how the alphabet appears when written in the middle of a word, when it connects with the surrounding alphabets.

Final form means when the alphabet appears at the end of a word, unless it follows some Arabic alphabets that do not connect with it, e.g. alif, Dal , Thal, Reh, zen, waw.....

Isolated form means when the alphabet is free standing.

The Arabic Tashkeel (Diacritics)

Many of those who are not familiar with reading the Quran or seeing it written in Arabic may not recognize that the text of the Arabic Quran after being written in Arabic alphabets, has some additions that goes above, below or at the end of a word to help the reader pronounce the word correctly and sometime they carry certain instructions, like not to stop the sentence at that particular word or to continue. These additions are called tashkeel. Some scribes over use them as a way of decoration of the actual words. NONE of these tashkeel symbols should be counted as part of the word.

Here is an image that has some of these tashkeels, I left them written as they are usually used, to allow you to compare their size with the regular size of a word to realize how small these symbols (tashkeel) appear around a normal word. I need to warn you however that some scribes write these tashkeels larger to decorate the words of the Quran, but these are still tashkeel. Most of the regular editions of the Quran have the same size (small) tashkeel symbols, while few of the art decorated editions of the Quran may have them bigger.

In this image there are 22 symbols that are used for tashkeel and at the bottom is a regular Arabic word in its normal size font compared to the tashkeel.

Most important of all the tashkeel symbols, is the short alif (alef) , sometimes called dagger alif, that is used above certain words in the Quran. This short (dagger) alif only helps in the pronunciation and is NOT counted as an extra alif. Examples of these dagger , tashkeel alifs, are; the dagger alif is marked by a red dot on top of it.

this word has five tashkeels used around the word,

this word has five tashkeels used around the word,

this word has six tashkeels used around the word,

this word has five tashkeels used around the word.

How the "Alif" and the “Lam” look like in different locations of the word

I recommend that you pay close attention to the letter alif (Alef) and the letter Lam as they may look very similar in the the middle of a word for those who are not familiar with the Arabic language. Please study them carefully. You will notice that while the letter Alif only connects to another Arabic Alphabet on its right side only, whether this happened at the end of the word or in the middle, the letter Lam can connect with other Arabic alphabets either from the right or left side or both sides.

Initial form means how the alphabet appears in the beginning of the word or in the middle of a word if it follows some Arabic alphabets that do not connect with it, e.g. alif, Dal , Thal, Reh, zen, waw....

Medial form means how the alphabet appears when written in the middle of a word, when it connects with the surrounding alphabets.

Final form means when the alphabet appears at the end of a word, unless it follows some Arabic alphabets that do not connect with it, e.g. alif, Dal , Thal, Reh, zen, waw.....

Isolated form means when the alphabet is free standing.

We hope this short essay makes it easy counting the Quranic initials and verifying the Mathematical Miracle of the Quran.

Praise be to God.