The Idgham letters are six: ي ، ر ، م ، ل ، و ، ن — gathered in the word Yarmaloon (يرملون). When a silent Noon (نْ) or Tanween ends one word and one of these letters opens the next, the Noon merges into that letter. With ن ، م ، ل ، ر the merge is complete and the letter is fully doubled; with ي and و it is incomplete — the Noon itself disappears but its nasal sound (ghunnah) stays. Four of the letters carry a 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.

Scope: this page follows the recitation of Hafs from ‘Asim via Ash-Shatibiyyah, the most widely printed reading today.

What Is Idgham in Tajweed?

This is the point most English pages blur. In Idgham the silent Noon is not read as a faint or quick Noon — the tongue never makes the Noon’s own contact. What happens next depends on the letter. With ن ، م ، ل ، ر the merge is complete: the Noon becomes the next letter, which is read fully doubled, and the mushaf prints a shaddah (ّ) on it. With ي and و the merge is incomplete: the Noon’s body goes but its ghunnah stays, so the doubling is partial — and in the usual Hafs print the و or ي carries no shaddah. Compare مَن يَعْمَلْ with مِن رَّبِّهِمْ.

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.

These sound relationships help explain the rules, but anatomical distance alone does not explain all of them. و is produced at the lips and ي in the middle of the tongue — neither sits next to the Noon at the tip of the tongue — yet both take Idgham. You can see where each sound is produced in our guide to the Makhraj of Arabic letters.

Phonetics has a name for a related pattern found in many languages — a nasal sound assimilating to the sound that follows it — and the Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics is a good starting point for the Arabic side. That explains why Idgham feels natural in the mouth. The Quranic rule itself, though — which letters merge, where the ghunnah stays, and the exceptions — rests on transmission: recitation received from teacher to student through the chain of Hafs, not on phonetic reasoning.

The 6 Idgham Letters (Yarmaloon)

Six letters trigger this rule, and Tajweed teachers rarely 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.

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The mnemonic: يَرْمَلُونَ (Yarmaloon)

يَرْمَلُونَ

Every letter in Yarmaloon is one of the six: ي، ر، م، ل، و، ن. Yarmaloon is used here as a mnemonic that gathers the six Idgham letters; its meaning is not needed to learn the rule. 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, “it grows”).

The ghunnah here lasts two counts — roughly the time of two short vowels at your own reading pace. Slower recitation stretches each count and faster recitation shortens it; the proportion is what stays fixed. Where the ghunnah comes from depends on the letter: with ي and و it is the ghunnah of the merged Noon or Tanween itself; with ن and م it belongs to the doubled ن or م that receives the merge. The Kamil vs Naqis section explains why.

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Ghunnah practice: feel the two counts

Two counts are 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 a ghunnah; 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.

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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 via Ash-Shatibiyyah places an obligatory brief pause without breath — a saktah — on the Noon. The pause breaks the contact between the two words, so the Noon is pronounced clearly instead.

Listen for the tiny catch before رَاقٍ. It is not a breath and not a full stop — just a brief 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, 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.

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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 and incomplete doubling, not careless 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 these labels to recite well — a teacher’s ear matters more. But they explain two things you can see and hear: why the mushaf prints a shaddah on ن، م، ل، ر and not on و، ي, and why the ghunnah on ي and و is the Noon’s own, while on ن and م it belongs to the doubled letter.

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 that can follow a silent Noon belongs to exactly one of these four groups — there is no overlap.

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The 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 what happens to the Noon. In merging, it gives way to the next letter — fully doubled with ن م ل ر, partially with ي و where only its ghunnah remains. In hiding, the ghunnah comes from the nasal passage while the mouth gets ready for the following letter: the mouth’s position is shaped by that letter, but the tongue does not make the full Noon contact, and nothing is merged or doubled. The mushaf reflects this too — there is never a shaddah after a hidden Noon.

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 intact before the six throat letters; merging gives it up before the six Yarmaloon letters. Classical teachers explain the throat letters by their distance from the Noon, and the Yarmaloon letters by a close relationship with it — sameness, nearness or shared qualities — rather than by distance alone. Hiding and conversion fall between the two.

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 what the mushaf shows. Where this rule applies, the Noon (or Tanween) is printed without a sukoon. A shaddah then appears on ن، م، ل، ر — the complete merges — but not on و or ي, where the merge is incomplete. The script is telling you how much of the Noon survives.

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. Each correct answer at each step earns one point — 19 points in total.

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 merges back to back — an incomplete one into ي (وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ) and a complete one 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.

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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. 🤲

There are five qalqalah letters in Arabic: ق ط ب ج د — Qaf, Ta, Ba, Jeem and Dal — gathered in the mnemonic قطب جد (Qutbu Jad). When one of them carries a sukoon, it is released with a light bounce or echo instead of being pressed flat. That bounce is qalqalah, and this page gives you the letters, the two types, real Quranic examples with the recitation of Sheikh Al-Husary, and a free game to practise spotting them.

What Are the Qalqalah Letters?

The word qalqalah (قلقلة) literally means shaking, disturbance or vibration. In Tajweed it describes a very short, controlled movement of sound that escapes when one of the five letters is released. You will also see the rule written as qalqala, qolqolah or haroof e qalqalah in different transliterations — they all refer to the same rule and the same five letters.

The reason this rule exists is phonetic rather than decorative. These five letters share one key feature: they are all shadidah (plosive) — the airflow is completely blocked at the point of articulation. Without the bounce, the blocked air simply has nowhere to go and the letter can sound muted or swallowed, so it is harder for the listener to hear clearly. The qalqalah releases that blockage cleanly, so the letter stays audible.

This is why qalqalah is worth getting right. A reciter who skips it is not simply reciting in a plainer style: omitting qalqalah affects the correct articulation of the letter and may make it less clear, but it does not necessarily mean that the letter itself has been omitted. Every recognised chain of recitation applies the rule, which is one of the reasons it is usually among the first three or four rules taught to a beginner alongside the other core Tajweed rules.

The 5 Qalqalah Letters and Their Makhraj

Each of the letters of qalqalah has its own point of articulation (makhraj). Knowing where the letter is formed makes the bounce far easier to produce, because the bounce is simply the release of that exact point:

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The mnemonic: قطب جد

Rather than memorising five separate letters, teachers gather them into one short phrase: قطب جد, read as Qutbu Jad. Every letter in that phrase is a qalqalah letter, in order: ق, ط, ب, then ج, د. Learn the phrase and the whole list comes with it — which is why almost every child taught in a traditional halaqah can recite the huruf qalqalah before they can explain the rule.

Some books use the variant qutb jadd or write it as two words. The spelling makes no difference; the five letters are fixed and agreed upon.

How Many Qalqalah Letters Are There?

Learners often expect the list to be longer, and there are two usual reasons. The first is confusion with the heavy letters of tafkheem — ص, ض, ط, ظ, غ, خ, ق. Two letters (ط and ق) belong to both groups, so students who meet tafkheem first assume the rest of that group bounces too. It does not: ص and ض are pronounced heavy, but the air is not released with an echo.

The second reason is that a qalqalah letter with a vowel on it does not bounce, so learners hear ب in bismi and conclude the rule is inconsistent. It is not — the rule only ever activates on sukoon. That single condition is what separates a qalqalah letter from an actual qalqalah occurrence.

How to Pronounce Qalqalah Letters (Step by Step)

The mechanic is the same for all five letters. Only the point of contact changes:

Listen and Practice: Qalqalah Letters in Action

Reading about qalqalah isn’t the same as hearing it. Below, tap each letter to hear a real Quranic word where that letter carries a sukoon, recited by Sheikh Mahmoud Khalil Al-Husary, so you can hear exactly what the bounce sounds like — then repeat it aloud yourself before moving to the next one.

The Two Types of Qalqalah: Sughra vs Kubra

The rules of qalqalah divide it into two levels of strength. The letters are identical in both; what changes is whether you read on past the sakin letter or stop on it, and therefore how much the bounce is emphasised.

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The last row of that table catches a lot of learners. In qul huwa Allāhu aḥad, the د bounces only because you stopped on it — in the Mushaf the word is written أَحَدٌ, with tanween. When أَحَدٌ is connected to اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ, the dāl remains vowelled, so there is no qalqalah on it. The pronounced nūn of tanween takes a kasrah to avoid two consecutive sakin letters: aḥaduni-llāhuṣ-ṣamad. The final دْ of يُولَدْ works differently: its sukoon is original, so if you join that ayah to the next one, it stays sakin and keeps a lighter qalqalah.

Examples of Qalqalah from the Quran

These five ayat are the ones most often used to teach the rule, because the bounce falls in a place you cannot miss. Press play on each, and follow the highlighted letter as Sheikh Al-Husary recites it.

Surah Al-Ikhlas and Al-Falaq are worth reciting slowly as a pair once you know the rule, because both contain several clear qalqalah examples, particularly at the stops: every ayah of each surah ends on a qalqalah letter, so the qalqalah kubra lands on the final letter of several ayat in a row. Children pick the rule up from these two surahs faster than from any explanation.

If you want to hear the same reciter across a longer passage while you practise, the phrase-by-phrase player on our Ayat al-Kursi memorization tool and on the last two ayat of Al-Baqarah uses the same recitation.

Common Mistakes Students Make with Qalqalah

Practise: Pop the Qalqalah Letters (Free Game)

Recognising the letters in isolation is easy; recognising them inside a running word is the actual skill. Play the game below — pop only the letters of qalqalah as they appear, and try to finish without popping a wrong letter. It works on phones and tablets, and no account is needed.

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Qalqalah video for kids

A short animated explanation of the rule for younger learners — useful if you are teaching qalqalah to a child at home:

Why Qalqalah Matters in Quran Recitation

Tajweed exists to preserve the Quran as it was recited and taught, sound for sound, through an unbroken chain of transmission. Qalqalah is a small part of that, but it is a part that is heard on almost every page — the five letters are among the most common in the language, and a reciter who ignores the rule alters the shape of hundreds of words.

It is also a rule with a genuine payoff for beginners. Unlike the finer points of madd, qalqalah can be learned in an afternoon and applied immediately, and it makes recitation sound noticeably more correct straight away. That early win is often what carries a student into the rest of the Tajweed rules course.

Common Questions About Qalqalah

Practise Qalqalah with Quran Book Online

You can learn the five letters from this page and drill them in the game above, but qalqalah is a sound, and a sound needs an ear on the other side. A teacher listening to you for ten minutes will tell you immediately whether your bounce is too heavy, too light, or landing on the wrong letter — something no page or app can do for you.

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