Kaf Ha Ya Ain Sad: Meaning and Surah Maryam

What Does Kaf Ha Ya Ain Sad Mean?

The opening كهيعص is a set of five letter names read one after another. These are kaf, ha, ya, ayn and sad. Together they form the first line of Surah Maryam, right after the Bismillah.

Unlike an ordinary word, the set has no fixed dictionary meaning. The most widely held position is that its meaning is known with certainty only to God. This is a statement about what most commentators have said, and it is not a ruling.

Many commentators and scholars have still offered thoughts on it, and they differ from one another. This page does not rank those views. For the general range of explanations, see the huruf muqattaat overview.

How Is Kaf Ha Ya Ain Sad Written and Read?

The five letters are written side by side, so they look a little like one word. They are not one word, though. Each letter is read by its own name, with a short pause between the names.

The readings in Urdu and Arabic follow the normal letter names. So the opening is said as kaf, ha, ya, ayn, sad. Some readers also write it in English as kaaf, haa, yaa, ayn, saad.

The letter names and values are shown below. The values come from the standard Mashriqi chart used on this site.

If you want help with the sounds, the muqattaat pronunciation guide explains how each name is said.

Why Is It Called the Longest Opening?

The muqattaat openings range from one letter to five. Kaf Ha Ya Ain Sad is the only single opening of five letters. Two other openings have four letters, which are المص and المر.

Surah ash-Shura is a special case, because it has two separate parts. The first part is حم and the second is عسق. Together they add up to five letters, but they are written as two openings and not one.

Notice that the longest opening has the highest sum of the five examples. That is simply because it has the most letters, and the letters here have fairly large values.

Which Letters Are Unique to This Opening?

Only one of the five letters is found nowhere else among the openings. That letter is kaf. No other muqattaat opening contains it.

The other four letters each appear elsewhere. The figure below shows where.

• Ha (ه): it also opens Surah Ta-Ha, as the second letter of طه.
• Ya (ي): it is the first letter of يس, the opening of Surah Ya-Sin.
• Ayn (ع): it begins عسق, the second opening of Surah ash-Shura.
• Sad (ص): it opens Surah Sad on its own, and it ends المص.

You can see all 29 surahs and their openings in the full muqattaat list.

What Are the Facts About Surah Maryam?

Surah Maryam is the 19th surah of the Quran and has 98 verses. It is a Meccan surah. In the mushaf it comes after Surah al-Kahf and before Surah Ta-Ha.

It sits in the 16th juz. The name means Mary, and the surah retells her story along with that of Zechariah and John. It also mentions Jesus, Abraham, Moses and several other prophets by name.

Where Does the Opening Sit in the Surah?

The five letters stand at the very start of the surah. Only the Bismillah comes before them. The rest of the surah, 97 verses in the standard count, follows them.

This surah is the only one of the 29 that carries this particular combination. So كهيعص points to Surah Maryam and to no other surah.

How Does the Opening Look in Urdu Script?

Urdu readers often meet this opening in a slightly different spelling. The Urdu form کھیعص uses the Urdu kaf, the do-chashmi he and the Urdu ya. The Arabic form كهيعص uses the Arabic kaf, the plain ha and the Arabic ya.

The shapes look alike, and the engine on this site reads them as the same letters. Both spellings give the same total of 195.

Printed copies of the Quran may add small marks above the letters. They do not change the letters or their values. The page on Urdu and Persian letters explains the extra shapes in more detail.

Where Does Surah Maryam Sit Among the 29 Surahs?

Count only the surahs that open with muqattaat, and Maryam is the tenth of the 29. The nine before it begin with الم, المص, الر and المر. Surah Ta-Ha, which opens with طه, follows it directly.

So Surahs 19 and 20 are neighbors, and both begin with the disjointed letters. That is a small detail, but it is easy to check in the list of all 29 openings. After Surah 20, the next opening comes in Surah 26.

• Surah number: 19 of 114.
• Verses: 98 by the standard count.
• Place of revelation: Makkah, so it is a Meccan surah.
• Position among the muqattaat surahs: 10th of 29.

What Are the Abjad Values of the Five Letters?

Each of the five letters is an ordinary Arabic letter, so each has an Abjad value. In the Mashriqi system, kaf is 20, ha is 5, ya is 10, ayn is 70 and sad is 90. The sum is plain addition:

ك 20 + ه 5 + ي 10 + ع 70 + ص 90 = 195

The total is 195. This is arithmetic only. It is not a hidden message, and this site makes no claim that the number means anything about the surah.

You can check the sum yourself with the Abjad value calculator. The page on muqattaat and Abjad values explains how such sums are done and what they can and cannot show.

Two cautions apply when you use this number. First, a sum depends on the table and on the spelling of the letters. Second, a sum shows how the letters add up, and it does not show what the opening means.

Why Might Another Table Give a Different Total?

Not every table uses the same value for every letter. In the Maghribi order, sad is 60 and not 90. That change alone makes the total of كهيعص equal 165 instead of 195.

How Is the Name Spelled in English?

English spellings of the five names vary, because the sounds do not map neatly onto Latin letters. You may meet kaf or kaaf, ha or haa, ya or yaa, ayn or ain, and sad or saad.

• Kaf Ha Ya Ain Sad, the form used on this site.
• Kaaf Haa Yaa Ayn Saad, a longer form that follows the sounds.
• Kaf Ha Ya Ayn Sad, with the ayn spelled with a y.

All of these point to the same five Arabic letters. A search for any one of them lands on the same opening of Surah Maryam. When you check a value, always type the Arabic letters and not the English spelling.

What Have Writers Said About Its Meaning?

Over the centuries, commentators have written about this opening, and their views vary. Some scholars suggested that the letters are short forms of names or attributes. Others proposed that they act as a call to attention at the start of the surah.

Many commentators hold that the letters are simply known to God alone. Some writers have also noted that certain letters here recur across other openings. These are observations from commentary, and this page does not say which is correct.

Because the views are many, it is wise to read full commentaries for any deeper study. This page keeps to the written letters, the facts of the surah, and the arithmetic. For the wider picture of views, see the pillar page on the disjointed letters.

Is There Anything Else to Know About the Letter Ha Here?

One small detail causes confusion. The ha in Kaf Ha Ya Ain Sad is the soft letter ه, which has the value 5. It is not the throaty letter ح, which has the value 8.

The second one is the ha found in حم, the opening of seven surahs. That group is covered on the Ha Mim page. Keeping the two letters apart avoids a common mix-up in both spelling and in sums.

How Can You Use This Information?

1. Write the five letters in order, from right to left.
2. Look up each value in the letter chart.
3. Add the five values to get the total of 195.
4. Compare with the phrase value calculator result to confirm.

These steps take about a minute and need no special knowledge. The same steps work for any opening on the list. For a hand method that does not need a tool, see how to calculate Abjad values by hand.

Sources and Further Reading

• Muqattaʿat, Wikipedia. The five-letter opening, reading letter by letter, the Ash-Shura double opening and the majority view.
• Maryam (surah), Wikipedia. Surah number, 98 verses, Meccan, juz 16, neighboring surahs and figures named.
• List of chapters in the Quran, Wikipedia. Verse counts and place of revelation.
• Letter values come from this site’s tested engine. See the methodology.

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