- بـ
- ـبـ
- ـب
Lesson 2
The letters joined
How each letter changes shape at the beginning, middle and end of a word. This is the stage where most children slow down, and it is the one worth being patient about.
Noorani Qaida online, free to read
The Noorani Qaida, free to read and free to download. No account, no email address, and nothing to pay.
This is the primer almost every reader of the Quran starts with. It teaches the Arabic letters, the sounds they make, how their shapes change when they join, and the short words and verses that come once they do.
The letters, to begin with
Twenty-eight letters, in order. The marked cell is the one most teachers start a child on after alif, because its single dot below makes it easy to tell apart.
- ا
- ب
- ت
- ث
- ج
- ح
- خ
- د
- ذ
- ر
- ز
- س
- ش
- ص
- ض
- ط
- ظ
- ع
- غ
- ف
- ق
- ك
- ل
- م
- ن
- و
- ه
- ي
The lessons, in order
Each lesson below shows what the stage looks like on the page, using the letter ba so you can see one letter carried the whole way through. The complete book, with every plate, is in the PDF further down.
- بَ
- بِ
- بُ
Lesson 3
The short vowels
Fatha, kasra and damma, and the sounds they add. Ba becomes ba, bi, bu, and suddenly the letters are readable as syllables rather than shapes.
- بً
- بٍ
- بٌ
Lesson 4
Tanween
The doubled endings, and how they sound. The same three vowels, written twice, each adding an n sound at the end.
- بَا
- بِي
- بُو
Lesson 5
The long vowels
Where a sound stretches, and by how much. The short vowel is held for one count, the long vowel for two, and hearing that difference is the beginning of tajweed.
- بْ
- بّ
- بَّ
Lesson 6
Sukoon and shadda
Stopping on a letter, and doubling one. A sukoon closes the sound, and a shadda holds it twice as long.
- قُلْ
- هُوَ
- أَحَدْ
Lesson 7
Short words and verses
Reading real words, then the shortest surahs. These three come from Surah al-Ikhlas, which is where a great many children read their first complete surah.
How to use this with a child
Short and often beats long and rare
Ten minutes a day gets further than an hour on Sunday. The Qaida is built for repetition.
Read it aloud, always
This is a book about sound. A child who reads it silently is learning shapes, not recitation.
Do not rush the joins
The stage where letters change shape is where most children slow down, and it is the stage worth being patient about. It passes.
Say it, then have them say it
You do not need to know Arabic well to do this. You need to model the sound and let them copy it.
What a book cannot do
It cannot hear your child.
That is not a small gap. Almost every mistake at this stage is a sound: a letter made in the wrong part of the mouth, a vowel held too short, a stop in the wrong place. On the page, all of that looks perfectly correct. It only shows up out loud, to someone listening who knows what they are listening for.
If you want someone listening, that is what our Noorani Qaida course is: the same book, one-to-one with a teacher, for thirty minutes at a time.
Want the printable version?
The complete book, all thirty-three pages, as a free PDF. No email address asked for and no account to make. Print it, put it on a tablet, or keep a copy in the car.
Download the Noorani Qaida (PDF)Questions parents ask
What age should a child start the Noorani Qaida?
Most start between four and seven. Readiness matters more than the birthday: a child who can sit for ten minutes and copy a sound back to you is ready.
How long does it take to finish?
How long that takes is a question about your child rather than about the book. Every child is different, and pushing a child through it faster than they can hold it is how the early letters get lost.
Is the Noorani Qaida the same as the Qaida Baghdadi?
They are different primers with the same purpose. The Noorani Qaida is the more common one today, and it is the one we teach from.
Do I need to know Arabic to help my child with this?
No. You need to be able to make the sound and let them copy it. Many of the parents whose children learn with us do not read Arabic themselves.
Can adults use this?
Yes, and many do. Nothing about the Qaida is only for children. If you are an adult beginner, our Quran for beginners classes start from exactly this point.
Is this really free?
Yes. Read the whole thing, as often as you like, without giving us anything.
When you want a teacher listening
Two free classes with a teacher matched to your child. They read to the teacher, the teacher hears the exact letter where the sound slips, and you sit in and watch it happen.
Book your child's 2 free classes