Lesson 1. Making the difference between ز, ذ, ظ, ض

Assalam-o-Alykum,

Many of the non-Arabs find it very difficult to make a difference between the letters mentioned in the title. Not making the a clear distinction between these letters can alter the meaning as we mentioned in the blog preview. 

I was one of those saying all these letters in a very similar fashion and found it very hard to correct myself. It needed a lot of hardwork to make a distinction. It might not be hard for everyone but the simple rule is: the more the efforts, the more hasanaat. 

Lets see each one of them separately. 

ز: (pronounced as 'zal' in English), very simple one. No such effort required for most of us. An example is 'zebra'. 

ذ: (pronounced as a mix between zha and dha), a difficult one at least for me. Many of us cannot make a distinction between ذ and ز but they are different. In  ذ, your tongue's tip is little bit visible to the one sitting in front of you while this is not the case with letter ز. English does not provide an example of the letter  ذ. 

ظ: (pronounced as 'zua' in English), Just like saying ز but your mouth will be round while saying this. English doesn't have this as a letter. 

ض: (pronounced as 'duad in English but you will not make a 'd' sound, but the sound that you make while saying 'the'), again no English example of this letter. 

ض can be sometimes mixed up with letter د but the different is with ض, your mouth will be round and you say  د with an open mouth 'daal'. 

Practicing the difference between ذ, ض, and  د took me lots of efforts so I would request you all to start practicing from today. The more the Quran reading, the faster it would come.