Ikhfa

The Ruling of Ikhfa (Hidden Pronunciation)

Linguistic definition of Ikhfa: concealment.

Technical definition of Ikhfa: pronouncing the silent Noon or Tanween in a manner between full clarity (Idhar) and full merging (Idgham), while preserving the nasalization (ghunnah) in the hidden letter.

Letters of Ikhfa: fifteen letters, remembered by the first letters of the following line of poetry:

صف ذا ثـنا كم جاد شخص قد سـما

دم طيبا زد فـي تقى ضـع ظـالما

Sif dha thana kam jad shakhs qad sama
dum tayyiban zid fi tuqa da' thalima

Performing Ikhfa: when hiding the silent Noon or Tanween, the articulation point of the Noon shifts away from the tip of the tongue (near the upper gum ridge) towards the articulation point of the hiding letter — the reciter keeps the tip of the tongue slightly away from the upper gum ridge.

The nasalization must also be held for two counts, and it is pronounced heavy if the hiding letter is heavy, as in ﴾إِنَّهُ كَانَ مَنْصُوْرًا﴿ (Al-Isra: 33), and light if the hiding letter is light, as in ﴾إِنَّ لَدَيْنَا أَنكَالًا وَجَحِيمًا﴿ (Al-Muzzammil: 12).

One must avoid turning the ghunnah into a full madd letter — e.g. pronouncing "kuntum" as if it were "kōntum" — this is an error.

Examples of Ikhfa: the silent Noon and the hiding letter may occur within one word, or across two separate words.

﴾وَأَمَّا عَادً فَأُهْلِكُوا بِرِيحٍ صَرْصَرٍ عَاتِيَةٍ﴿ (Al-Haqqah: 6)

﴾مَّن ذَا الَّذِي يُقْرِضُ اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًَا فَيُضَاعِفَهُ لَهُ أَضْعَافًا كَثِيرَةً﴿ (Al-Baqarah: 245)

﴾وَقَالُواْ لَوْلا أُنزِلَ عَلَيْهِ مَلَكًا وَلَوْ أَنزَلْنَا مَلَكًا﴿ (Al-An'am: 8)

Marking Ikhfa in the Mushaf

In the standard script, the hidden letter is written without a sukoon mark for the silent Noon, and with the two consecutive vowel marks for the Tanween (see the ayah illustrations in the examples above).