The Letter Dhal (ذ): Abjad Value 700, Remembrance & the Good

Dhal is a small, quiet letter with a special habit: it refuses to join the letter that comes after it, so it often sits alone inside a word. It is a single curve topped by one dot, and it opens one of the most repeated acts in a believer’s day, the remembrance of God.

What Is the Arabic Letter Dhal (ذ)?

Dhal is the ninth letter of the modern Arabic alphabet and the twenty-fifth letter in the Abjad order. It makes a soft, voiced “th” sound, the same as the “th” in this, that, or the. In shape it is a small curve that sits on the line, marked by one dot above.

What Is the Abjad Value of Dhal?

In the Abjad system, also called Hisab al-Jummal, the Abjad value of Dhal is 700. It is one of the “hundreds” letters, so it adds a large amount to a word’s total, and the value never changes with the letter’s position in a word.

Dhal keeps the value 700 in both main systems, because it is not one of the six letters that shift between Mashriqi and Maghribi. So a word with Dhal gives the same Dhal contribution either way. For the full method, see the Abjad Calculation Rules, or get the value of any name in the Abjad Calculator.

Dhal: The Letter of Remembrance

Dhal opens a family of words tied to remembering, worth, and turning back. This is a fact of the language, not a property of the number.

It begins ذكر (Dhikr, the remembrance of God), ذات (Dhat, essence or self), ذنب (Dhanb, sin), and ذهب (Dhahab, gold). It also opens the divine title ذو الجلال والإكرام (Dhul-Jalali wal-Ikram, the Lord of Majesty and Honour).

Words of Remembrance and Worth That Begin With Dhal

You can check any of these in the calculator above, and switch the method to compare Mashriqi and Maghribi totals. For the divine names, see the 99 Names of Allah.

Companions and Names That Contain Dhal

Dhal appears in several well-known names from Islamic history, usually inside the name rather than at its start. The totals below are plain letter sums, shown for study only, and carry no ranking or hidden meaning.

Companions (Sahaba)

Other Names That Contain Dhal

Check any of these names yourself in the calculator above to see the running total build up letter by letter.

Everyday Words That Contain Dhal

Dhal turns up in many common Arabic words, from the classroom to the kitchen.

How to Write and Recognize Dhal (ذ)

Dhal is a non-joining letter: it connects to the letter before it, but never to the one that follows. Because of this it has only two shapes, not four, and it often looks like a small dotted curve standing on its own inside a word.

Common Confusion: Dal (د) vs. Dhal (ذ)

Dal and Dhal share the exact same small curve. The only difference is a single dot, and it changes both the sound and the Abjad value (Dal = 4 vs. Dhal = 700):

Dhal and the Six Extra Arabic Letters

Dhal belongs to the six extra Arabic letters, traditionally called the rawadif, which Arabic added after the original twenty-two Semitic letters. These six were placed at the end of the count and given the highest values, from 500 to 1000.

Dhal is the third of these six. Its written shape descends from Dal, which is why the two look alike, but its Abjad value of 700 is an Arabic addition and has no single matching letter in the Hebrew or Greek numerals.

Frequently Asked Questions