In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

The writing of the Alif, Yaa and Taa

When we study the writing of the Egyptian edition of the Quran in 1924 and later years, we would immediately notice the divine control over the choice of the letters, deleting some, adding some, or replacing some with a short stroke mark, like a dagger alif (alef) or a tashkeel.

The mathematical miracle of the Quran confirmed the fact that the changes were divinely deliberate, leaving some human errors that can be easily detected when the rules of the miracle applied.

We will give you here examples of these Arabic alphabets that cannot be changed by wishful thinking.

Alif (Alef):

The Egyptian edition of 1924 of the Quran removed about 5300 alifs from the Turkish edition and replaced them with short strokes, called dagger alifs.

The short stroke alif (alef) , sometimes called 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.)

, , , and

The decision to write a dagger alif instead of a full alif in any certain word has to be divine guidance since it forms a major part of the mathematical miracle of the Quran.

The Hamza is unique, as it is counted as an alif in certain words, and have the same gematrical value of the alif, although when written on a Yaa , a Waw or under or above a stem, it is not considered an alif. The Hamza which is now an important part of the reformed Arabic writing were not writen in the early writings of the Quran. Their presence, location and the choice of which hamza for what word, all proved to be part of the miracle of the Quran. Anther indication that the writing of the hamza in its current location was also a divinely guided process.

Hamza as it appears in many forms.

While some of the words that end in a Taa is written in the Quran with an open Taa, , same exact word can be written with a closed Taa (Taa marboota) , and then it will be counted as Haa. This confused some of the historians and Christian missionaries who study the Quran, they did not know that this particular writing is but a part of God's plan for the mathematical miracle of the Quran. The choice between both has to be a divine guidance.

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.


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.

Writing of the subtle Yaa in the Egyptian edition is another mark of God's control of the process of re-writing of the Quran since a subtle Yaa is NOT pronounced and cannot be invented, but rather passed down from generation to generation. The mathematical miracle of the Quran confirmed that where appropriate these subtle Yaas were divinely chosen. If we find any human errors in the writing of the subtle Yaa , we will be able to correct them using the rules of the miracle.

In many Arabic words of the Quran, the word may end by a pronounced Yaa but the Yaa is not written.e.g. . Words like these with a pronounced, but not a written Yaa, represent a challenge to the writing of the Quran that cannot be correct unless there is a system to preserve it, i.e. the mathematical miracle of the Quran.

In conclusion:

The writing of the alif, specially the dagger alifs, the Taa in its forms and the Yaa in its forms are another proof of the divine control over the writing of the Quran in later years, e.g.1924 Royal Egyptian Edition.

See also:
  1. How to count the Quranic initials
  2. Are all the Arabic versions of Quran the same?
  3. Preserving and protecting Quran