Ikhfa letters

The following 15 letters are the letters of Ikhfa. 

ت ث ج د ذ ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ف ق ك

When these ikhfa letters come after noon saakin or a tanween letter then we ‘hide’ the noon sound and stretch for around 2 seconds (or 1-2 harakahs).

If the letter of Ikhfa is a full mouth letter then the sound of ikhfa will be thicker. If the letter of ikhfa is an empty mouth letter then the sound of ikhfa will be more empty.

Examples of Ikhfa

Full mouth ikhfa letters

There are 7 full mouth letters but within the ikhfa letters, there are a total of 5 full mouth letters as listed below.

ص ض ط ظ ق

If these full mouth letters appear in the ikhfa word then the Ikhfa sound will be thicker.

Empty mouth ikhfa letters

ت ث ج د ذ ز س ش  ف  ك

If these empty mouth letters appear in the ikhfa word then the ikhfa sound will be read with an empty sound.

Ikhfa presentation

I have uploaded this Ikhfa presentation which is free to download. Simply sign up for free and download under the Tajweed tab (which is under the Resources tab in the main menu).

This ikhfa presentation goes through the rule by breaking it down into easy to understand steps. 

There are slides on what noon saakin and tanween look like. This is a must for kids to wrap their heads around before they begin to learn and implement the Ikhfa rule in their reading. The presentation also has some clear Quranic examples with parts of words highlighted, so that kids can practise what to look at and how to spot ikhfa in their sabaq. This should help them begin looking for ikhfa independently after you have provided them with some initial support.

You can go through this presentation with a class of your own kids as it is quite easy to intearctive for kids to follow.

Ikhfa worksheets

We also have an entire Ikhfa pack available to download for members of Primary Ilm. The membership gives you access to the entire library of resources for an entire year! There are Islamic activity sheets, booklets, Ebooks, colouring pages and so much more to choose from. These are hugely popular with teachers and parents across many countries.

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