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Do you favour sunny days over cool nights? Or a bright glowing moon instead? This post is filled with sunshine, so pop on your sunnies and get ready… you’ll now be officially introduced to our star (pun intended)…..Sunny Laam! …no: not Lamb!

There is a big contradiction between the way I type transliteration, and this post. You will come to realise this as I begin to explain this rule.

Al-Laam Al-Shamseeyah: is the laam which occurs at the beginning of a word, whereby it is merged with the letter that follows it.

Let’s note:

a) In the case where the laam is merged, the “ll” sound it makes is completely eliminated.

b) For the laam to be merged, it must be a silent laam.

c) Considering no word in the Arabic language can start with a sukoon, the merging of the laam cannot happen unless the word begins with “Al-“. This is because – had there been no alif before the laam – there would be nothing to “make possible” the merging of the “ll” sound.

d) The letter following the laam that must be merged HAS TO BE one of the following 14 letters:

ت ث د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ل ن

Note the first letter of each word in the following phrase, these are the 14 letters stated above, sometimes phrases are easier to remember for those more fluent in Arabic:

طِبْ ثُمَّ صِلْ رَحِماً تَفُزْ ضِفْ ذَا نِعَمْ دَعْ سُوءَ ظَنٍّ زُرْشَرِيفَاً لِلْكَرَمْ

e) You will notice, part of the Quranic scripture, that there is a shaddah on the letter that invokes this merging.

f) For the laam to be merged, it cannot be part of the original make up of the word.

Now let’s see examples:

On the right is the letter example and the Quranic script, on the left is how it is read.

In order, from top to bottom:

taa: Al-taa’iboona = At-taa’iboona

thaa: Al-thamaraati = Ath-thamaraati

daal: Al-daa‘eeya = Ad-daa‘eeya

thaal = Wal-thaariyaati = Wath-thaariyaati

In order, from top to bottom:

raa: Al-Rahmaani = Ar-Rahmaani

zaal: Al-zaqoomi = Az-zaqoomi

seen: Al-saa’ihoona = As-saa’ihoona

sheen: Al-shamsu = Ash-shamsu

saad: Al-saalihaati = As–saalihaati

daad: Al-daalleena = Ad–daalleena

In order from top to bottom:

tah: Al-taammatu = At–taammatu

thah: Al-thaanneena = Ath–thaanneena

laam: Al-layl = A-llayla

noon: Al-naas = An-naasi

Note that merging the laam into the next letter cannot happen unless you sound a shaddah on that letter, i.e. for the last word in the examples, you must say, “annaasi” not “anasi”. If a shaddah is not sounded, the meaning can change entirely.

That’s all for this sunny post! Just remember, sunny laam = merging = no laam at all = shaddah. Beautiful examples and practice on page 62 of the Gateway To Arabic resource file. Link to resource page is found below.

Resources Link: