The Idgham letters are six: ي ، ر ، م ، ل ، و ، ن — gathered in the word Yarmaloon (يرملون). When a silent Noon (نْ) or Tanween is followed by one of them across two words, the Noon merges into that letter and disappears. Four of these letters carry a nasal sound (ghunnah); two — ل and ر — do not. Merging is the second of the four rules of Noon Sakinah and Tanween.

Also spelled Idghaam, Iddigham or Idgam in English transliterations.

What Is Idgham in Tajweed?

This is the point most English pages blur. The silent Noon is not pronounced faintly, quickly or softly. It is not pronounced at all. The letter that follows takes its place and is doubled, and the shaddah (ّ) you see printed over that letter in the mushaf is the visual signal that the merge has happened.

Read مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ and you will not hear min rabbihim with a small n. You will hear mir-rabbihim. The Noon has been absorbed and only the doubled Raa survives.

That distance principle is the whole logic. The nearer the next letter is to the Noon’s own articulation point — the tip of the tongue at the gum line — the less of the Noon survives. You can see where each sound is produced in our guide to the Makhraj of Arabic letters, and the six merging letters are all produced within a hair’s breadth of it.

Linguists describe the same phenomenon outside Tajweed entirely: it is regressive nasal assimilation, where a nasal consonant takes on the identity of the sound that follows it. Arabic simply codified it earlier and more precisely than most languages, as documented in the Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. This rule is not a religious convention layered on top of speech — it is how the mouth already wants to behave.

The 6 Idgham Letters (Yarmaloon)

Six letters trigger this rule, and Tajweed scholars never ask students to memorise them as a loose list. They are packed into one pronounceable word instead. Tap play on any row to hear the example in the recitation of Sheikh Mahmoud Khalil Al-Husary.

The mnemonic: يَرْمَلُونَ (Yarmaloon)

يَرْمَلُونَ

Every letter in Yarmaloon is one of the six: ي، ر، م، ل، و، ن. It is worth saying plainly, because the question comes up constantly — Yarmaloon is not an Arabic word with a meaning. It carries no translation and appears nowhere in the Quran. Scholars built it as a memory device, arranging the six letters into a shape the tongue can hold. Learn the word and the list is yours permanently.

One more detail worth noticing on the table above: the six letters do not behave identically. Four of them keep a nasal hum and two erase it completely — and separately from that, two of them let a trace of the Noon survive while four wipe it out entirely. Those are two different splits of the same six letters, and the next three sections take them one at a time.

Idgham With Ghunnah (Idgham Maal Ghunnah)

Four of the six letters keep the nasal sound alive after the merge: ي، ن، م، و. They are memorised through a second, smaller mnemonic — يَنْمُو (yanmoo), which unlike Yarmaloon is a real word meaning “it grows”.

The ghunnah here lasts two counts — roughly the time it takes to say two short vowels, or to tap your finger twice at a steady pace. It is held on the new doubled letter, not on the vanished Noon.

Ghunnah timer: see the two counts

Two counts is easy to read and hard to feel. Press Play to hear the ayah recited by Sheikh Al-Husary, then press 2 counts and hold the hum yourself while the bar fills. The first example carries the nasal sound; the second has none at all. Alternate between them until the difference is obvious to your ear without looking at the screen.

Idgham Without Ghunnah (Idgham Bila Ghunnah)

Two letters only: ل and ر. Here the merge is total. The Noon is gone, and so is every trace of nasal sound with it — the reader moves straight into a doubled Laam or a doubled Raa as if the Noon had never been written.

The exception: مَنْ رَاقٍ

One phrase in the Quran meets every condition for merging into ر and still is not merged. In Surah Al-Qiyamah 75:27, the recitation of Hafs places an obligatory brief pause — a saktah — between the two words. The pause breaks the contact between them, so the Noon is pronounced clearly instead.

Listen for the tiny catch before رَاقٍ. It is not a breath and not a stop — just a held silence, marked in the mushaf with a small س. Once you know it is there, the reason for the clear Noon becomes obvious.

Complete vs Incomplete Idgham (Kamil & Naqis)

Here is the question that almost every English page leaves hanging. If the Noon disappears completely, where does the nasal sound in مَن يَعْمَلْ come from? Yaa is not a nasal letter. Something has to be producing that hum.

The classical answer is that the six letters split a second time — this time by how much of the Noon is absorbed.

So the hum you hear on ي and و is the last surviving property of a letter that is otherwise gone. The body of the Noon has been absorbed; one of its attributes has not. That is exactly what “incomplete” means here — incomplete absorption, not incomplete pronunciation.

With ن and م the merge is complete and yet a ghunnah is still heard — but that one belongs to the receiving letter itself, since both are nasal by nature. Two different sources, one similar sound. With ل and ر nothing nasal exists on either side, which is why those two are silent in every sense.

Play these two back to back and the distinction stops being theoretical:

You do not need this distinction to recite correctly — the sound comes out the same either way. You need it to understand why the sound is what it is, and that is the difference between memorising a table and knowing the rule.

Idgham vs Izhar vs Ikhfaa vs Iqlab

One silent Noon, four possible outcomes, and the only thing that decides between them is which letter comes next. Every letter of the Arabic alphabet belongs to exactly one of these four groups — there is no overlap and no letter left over.

The two confusions worth settling

Merging vs hiding. These two are mixed up more than any other pair, because both involve a nasal sound and neither gives you a clean Noon. The test is simple: ask whether the Noon still exists. In merging it does not — there is nothing left of it, and the next letter carries a shaddah. In hiding it is still there, produced somewhere between its own position and the next letter’s, audible as a hum without full contact. One erases the letter; the other conceals it.

Merging vs clear pronunciation. These are opposite ends of the same line, so confusing them is rarer but more serious. Clear pronunciation keeps the Noon at its natural length before the six throat letters. Merging removes it altogether before the six Yarmaloon letters. If the letters are far from the Noon, it survives; if they are close, it does not. Every other rule of the silent Noon is a point somewhere between those two extremes.

Merging vs conversion. Only one letter triggers conversion — ب — and the Noon does not stay and does not vanish. It changes identity and becomes a Meem, held with a two-count hum and the lips only lightly closed. It is the smallest rule of the four and the easiest to spot, since there is exactly one letter to watch for.

Idgham Rules for Noon Sakinah and Tanween

The trigger has two parts, and both must be present. First, a silent Noon or a Tanween. Second, one of the six merging letters opening the next word. Miss the second condition and the rule does not apply, no matter how right the letters look.

Rules of Idgham with Tanween

A Tanween is a silent Noon that is pronounced but not written as a letter. That is the whole of it. Every rule that governs نْ governs ـً ـٍ ـٌ in exactly the same way, and all six merging letters apply to it without modification.

Notice that the doubling appears in the text itself. Wherever this rule operates, the mushaf drops the sukoon from the Noon and places a shaddah on the following letter — the script is telling you what to do before you have worked it out.

The exception: when merging does NOT apply

Izhar Mutlaq (إظهار مطلق). When a silent Noon is followed by و or ي inside the same word, the Noon is pronounced clearly. Only four words in the Quran meet this description:

الدُّنْيَا  ·  بُنْيَان  ·  صِنْوَان  ·  قِنْوَان

The reasoning is about preserving meaning, not about sound. If these were merged, they would come out as ad-duyyā, buyyān, ṣiwwān — indistinguishable from words that genuinely contain a doubled letter. The root would be hidden and the word would look like something it is not. So the rule steps aside to keep the structure of the word visible.

Test Yourself: Which Rule Applies?

Four rules, one silent Noon. We’ll show you a verse with the Noon or Tanween highlighted — you pick the rule. And when the answer is merging, there’s a second question waiting: with or without ghunnah? Twelve questions, instant feedback, no sign-up.

Idgham Examples from the Quran

Twelve passages: six with a silent Noon, six with Tanween, covering all six letters and both types. The Noon or Tanween is marked in blue, the merging letter in orange. Press play to hear each one recited by Sheikh Al-Husary.

With Noon Sakinah

With Tanween

Surah Al-Ghashiyah verse 8 is the most efficient drill on this page: one short ayah containing two instances back to back, one merging into ي and the next into ن. If you can read it without letting the ghunnah slip, the rule is holding.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Play: Idgham Basket (Free Game)

Recognising the rule under time pressure is a different skill from recognising it on a page. Catch the words where the Noon merges, let the rest fall past, and see how long you last. It works on phones and tablets, and no account is needed.

Game not loading? Open it in a new tab · or browse all our free Arabic letter games.

Learn More

Merging is one of four rules that govern the silent Noon. Here’s what to study next:

All of them sit inside the wider set of Tajweed rules, and all of them are covered step by step in our Tajweed courses.

Frequently Asked Questions

May Allah beautify your recitation and accept it from you. 🤲