Al-Infitaah vs Al-Itbaaq

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Following on from posts about Al-Hams vs Al-Jahr & Ar-RIkhaawah vs Ash-Shiddah vs At-Tawassut, another batch from the characteristics with opposites is Al-Infitaah and its opposite Al-Itbaaq. We have previously written about Itbaaq in the post Al-Isti’laa vs Al-Istifaal post but, for the purposes of structured learning – it will be mentioned again in this post alongside its opposite characteristic (Al-Infitaah).

Al-Itbaaq refers to the meeting of the tongue with the upper palate (roof of one’s mouth – just behind the front 2 teeth). These letters are full-mouth (heavy letters) and are known as having strong characteristics (Sifaat Al-Quwwah). The letters of Itbaaq are 4:

ص    ض    ط    ظ

The picture below (on the right) shows an example of the alignment of the tongue with the upper palate when pronouncing the aforementioned letters. The blue colour behind the front 2 teeth show the movement of the tongue to the upper palate of the mouth when pronouncing the letters of Itbaaq.

All the remaining letters are known as the letters of Infitaah. The tongue does not get raised as much when pronouncing these letters as opposed to the letters of Itbaaq. The picture on the left shows an example of the letter Qaaf and the subsequent movement of the tongue when pronounced. It is clear that the tongue does not touch the roof of the mouth as much as the example on the right (which is a letter of Itbaaq ظ).