What the pause marks in the mushaf mean (meem, jeem, and the three dots)
The small symbols above the words of the mushaf are neither decoration nor vowels - each one is a ruling about stopping and continuing. Every mark explained on the text this site displays, with its number of occurrences counted, and the twenty-one places where stopping is obligatory.
What these marks are
A printed mushaf carries three different kinds of small symbol above and below the letters: vowel marks (fathah, dammah, sukun), recitation marks (the rounded zero, the marks of prolongation), and pause marks — which are what this article is about.
Pause marks are not part of the original written text. The Quran was revealed as speech and written in the earliest copies without vowels and without marks; scholars of pausing and starting (al-waqf wal-ibtida) later added these symbols so a reciter would know where it is good to break the breath and where it is not. The foundations of the subject are attributed to Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Tayfur as-Sajawandi, and printed mushafs differ in how many of these marks they use and how they draw them. This article speaks about the text this site displays: the King Fahd Complex text in the narration of Hafs from Asim. Every number below is counted on that text.
Why should this matter to an ordinary reader? Because a stop in the wrong place can change the meaning — which is not a theoretical remark, as Aal Imran 7 will show.
The five marks, and how often each occurs
| Mark | What it means | Marks | Verses |
|---|---|---|---|
| ج (jeem) | stopping is permitted, continuing is permitted | 2,083 | 1,570 |
| صلى | continuing is preferable to stopping | 1,651 | 1,278 |
| قلى | stopping is preferable to continuing | 511 | 445 |
| م (meem) | stopping is obligatory | 21 | 21 |
| three dots | the embracing pause | 6 | 3 |
The first thing the table shows is that permission is overwhelmingly the common case: more than four thousand of these marks tell the reciter "you may stop and you may continue", and exactly twenty-one tell him "stop".
As for the mark لا — the forbidden stop — it is well known from many printed mushafs, and it does not occur even once in the text this site displays. That is a difference between printed mushafs in the set of marks they use, not a difference in the Quran.
Meem: the twenty-one places
This mark means that continuing would spoil the sense or suggest something other than what is meant, so stopping is required. These are all of its places in the text this site displays:
2:26 · 2:118 · 2:212 · 2:253 · 3:181 · 4:118 · 4:171 · 5:2 · 5:51 · 5:64 · 5:73 · 6:20 · 6:36 · 6:124 · 7:148 · 10:65 · 11:20 · 28:88 · 29:26 · 36:76 · 54:6
The clearest example is a pair of parallel places, one in Yunus and one in Ya-Sin:
﴿فَلَا يَحۡزُنكَ قَوۡلُهُمۡۘ إِنَّا نَعۡلَمُ مَا يُسِرُّونَ وَمَا يُعۡلِنُونَ﴾
So let not their speech grieve you. Indeed, We know what they conceal and what they declare.
The mark sits above "their speech". Stop there and the sense is: let their speech not grieve you — then an independent statement: indeed We know what they conceal. Continue, and what follows becomes a report of their speech — attributing to them words that are not theirs. Yunus 65 is almost word for word the same case.
A second example:
﴿لَّقَدۡ كَفَرَ ٱلَّذِينَ قَالُوٓاْ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ ثَالِثُ ثَلَٰثَةٖ﴾
They have certainly disbelieved who say, "Allah is the third of three." And there is no god except one God. And if they do not desist from what they are saying, there will surely afflict the disbelievers among them a painful punishment.
The mark sits above "three": the disbelief belongs to what is quoted of them, and what follows the mark is a fresh affirmation of oneness, not the completion of their words.
The three dots: the embracing pause
This is the rarest mark: six marks in three verses, because it never comes except as a pair. It means the reciter stops at one of the two places and not at both. Its three places:
- Al-Baqarah 2 — above rayb and above fih.
- Al-Ma'idah 26 — above alayhim and above sanah.
- Al-Ma'idah 41 — above qulubuhum and above hadu.
The first is the famous one:
﴿ذَٰلِكَ ٱلۡكِتَٰبُ لَا رَيۡبَۛ فِيهِۛ هُدٗى لِّلۡمُتَّقِينَ﴾
This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah -
Stop at the first: "no doubt" — then "in it is guidance for the God-conscious." Stop at the second: "no doubt in it" — then "guidance for the God-conscious." Both are sound; the mark forbids only taking both stops, because stopping at both would cut "guidance" off from anything to attach to.
The small seen: eight places, two different jobs
The small seen occurs in eight places in the mushaf, and in them it does two different things.
Five are for sakt — cutting the voice off briefly without taking a breath:
- Al-Kahf 1 — on iwaja.
- Ya-Sin 52 — on marqadina.
- Al-Haqqah 28 — on maliyah.
- Al-Qiyamah 27 — on man.
- Al-Mutaffifin 14 — on bal.
﴿وَقِيلَ مَنۡۜ رَاقٖ﴾
And it is said, "Who will cure [him]?"
The sakt here keeps the nun from being assimilated into the ra, which would be heard as a single word.
Three are not about pausing at all, but mark a sad that is recited as a seen:
- Al-Baqarah 245 — wa-yabsut.
- Al-A'raf 69 — bastatan.
- At-Tur 37 — al-musaytirun.
The symbol is identical in shape; its function is known from where it sits. This is the kind of detail a reader sees on the page every day and never asks about.
Two marks that are not about pausing
- ۞ — the quarter mark, placed at the head of every quarter of a hizb. It occurs 199 times in the text.
- ۩ — the place of a prostration. It occurs 15 times.
The first divides the text for memorising and for a daily portion; the second marks an action.
A verse whose meaning turns on the stop
The clearest proof that a pause is a ruling and not an ornament is the seventh verse of Aal Imran:
﴿هُوَ ٱلَّذِيٓ أَنزَلَ عَلَيۡكَ ٱلۡكِتَٰبَ مِنۡهُ ءَايَٰتٞ مُّحۡكَمَٰتٌ هُنَّ أُمُّ ٱلۡكِتَٰبِ وَأُخَرُ مُتَشَٰبِهَٰتٞۖ فَأَمَّا ٱلَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمۡ زَيۡغٞ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ مَا تَشَٰبَهَ مِنۡهُ ٱبۡتِغَآءَ ٱلۡفِتۡنَةِ وَٱبۡتِغَآءَ تَأۡوِيلِهِۦۖ وَمَا يَعۡلَمُ تَأۡوِيلَهُۥٓ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُۗ وَٱلرَّٰسِخُونَ فِي ٱلۡعِلۡمِ يَقُولُونَ ءَامَنَّا بِهِۦ كُلّٞ مِّنۡ عِندِ رَبِّنَاۗ وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّآ أُوْلُواْ ٱلۡأَلۡبَٰبِ﴾
It is He who has sent down to you, [O Muhammad], the Book; in it are verses [that are] precise - they are the foundation of the Book - and others unspecific. As for those in whose hearts is deviation [from truth], they will follow that of it which is unspecific, seeking discord and seeking an interpretation [suitable to them]. And no one knows its [true] interpretation except Allah. But those firm in knowledge say, "We believe in it. All [of it] is from our Lord." And no one will be reminded except those of understanding.
This verse carries four marks: sad-lam-ya above "resembling one another", sad-lam-ya above "its interpretation", qaf-lam-ya above the name of God in "except Allah", and qaf-lam-ya above "our Lord". So the mushaf's own mark says that stopping is preferable at "except Allah".
The effect on the sense is plain:
- Stop at "except Allah", and "those firm in knowledge" begins a new sentence: they say, "We believe in it."
- Continue, and "those firm in knowledge" is joined to the name of God: they too know the interpretation.
What the tafsir says here
At-Tafsir al-Muyassar, issued by the King Fahd Complex, reads it on the stop: the reality of the meanings of these verses is known to none but God; and those well grounded in knowledge say, we believe in this Quran, all of it has come to us from our Lord upon the tongue of His messenger. It thus takes "those well grounded in knowledge say" as a fresh sentence, which is what the mushaf's mark calls for.
Al-Fayd al-Kashani, in Tafsir as-Safi, glosses the phrase itself: "except Allah, and those firm in knowledge" — those who have become firm and established in it. He then relays, as ta'wil, what is reported from the People of the House about their being the ones firm in knowledge.
Al-Allamah at-Tabataba'i, in Tafsir al-Mizan, treats the question at length and reviews the variant readings reported for the verse without resting a ruling on them: these, he says, are not fit to establish anything — first, because such readings carry no authority. He then cites the report in Al-Kafi that they are the ones firm in knowledge and know its interpretation, and says that the appearance of a grammatical joining in it is removed by what he has already set out, treating the report as an application rather than a definition.
So all three agree that the verse divides revelation into the clear and the resembling, and that those firm in knowledge say "We believe in it." The point of difference is the one above: a joining to the name of God, or a fresh sentence? The mushaf's mark favours the stop, and the three texts are in front of the reader on the tafsir pages as they stand in their books, with no adjudication from this page.
(The tafsir passages are rendered here in our own English.)
Five practical takeaways
- Jeem means you are free. That is most of what is in the mushaf.
- Sad-lam-ya means continuing is better; qaf-lam-ya means stopping is better. Both are allowed.
- Meem means stop — twenty-one times in the whole mushaf, and you now have the list.
- The three dots always have a near twin: stop at one of them.
- The end of a verse is a place to stop in any case, even with no mark on it.
You can see all of these marks in the mushaf text itself in the reader: the typeface the Quran is displayed in here is the mushaf's own, with its marks.
Sources
- The Quran text — the King Fahd Complex text (Hafs from Asim), which this site displays; every count here is made on it.
- English translation — Sahih International, the translation the site serves.
- At-Tafsir al-Muyassar — a panel of scholars, King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Quran.
- Tafsir as-Safi — al-Fayd al-Kashani.
- Tafsir al-Mizan — Sayyid Muhammad Husayn at-Tabataba'i.