Alif Lam Mim: Meaning, Surahs and Letter Values

What Does Alif Lam Mim Mean?

The most widely held position is that its meaning is known with certainty only to God. This describes the majority view among Muslims, and it is the general answer in classical commentary.

Alif Lam Mim is one of the huruf muqattaat, the disjointed letters that open 29 surahs. Commentators over the centuries proposed several explanations for these letters. The range of those views is set out neutrally on the huruf muqattaat overview, and it is not repeated here.

This page is a reference, not a commentary. It reports which surahs open with Alif Lam Mim and how the letters are named and written. It also gives their letter values, and it does not choose between views.

Which Six Surahs Open With Alif Lam Mim?

Alif Lam Mim is the most frequent of the 14 openings, shared by six surahs. Ha Mim stands alone at the start of six more. A seventh, ash-Shura, begins with Ha Mim and then Ain Sin Qaf.

The six surahs are al-Baqarah (2), Al Imran (3), al-Ankabut (29), ar-Rum (30), Luqman (31) and as-Sajdah (32). The table gives each one with its length and place of revelation.

The group splits into two parts. The first two surahs sit at the start of the Quran. The other four form an unbroken run from surah 29 to surah 32.

How Do the Six Surahs Compare?

The six surahs are very different in size. Al-Baqarah has 286 verses and is the longest surah of the Quran. As-Sajdah has only 30.

Added together, the six surahs hold 679 verses. Of these, 486 belong to the two Medinan surahs and 193 belong to the four Meccan ones.

Meccan and Medinan Surahs

Al-Baqarah and Al Imran are Medinan, which means they are placed in the period after the move to Madinah. The other four are Meccan. So the same opening appears in both periods.

The order column shows that the surahs were not revealed in the order they are printed. Surah 31 comes much earlier in that order than surah 29 does. Printed order and revelation order are two separate lists.

How Is Alif Lam Mim Written?

In the printed text the three letters stand together as one cluster, الم. Lam and mim join each other, as they do in ordinary Arabic writing. Alif never joins the letter after it, so it stands a little apart.

Many printed copies add a small prolongation mark over the lam and the mim, which gives the form الٓمٓ. These marks guide the reciter. They are not extra letters.

The engine on this site ignores such marks, so both forms give 71. That is the same total as the plain form.

The Cluster Counts as the First Verse

In these surahs the letters form the first verse by themselves. That is why a surah such as al-Baqarah has its first verse of just three letters. The verse counts in the table include it.

How Is Alif Lam Mim Read Aloud?

The cluster is read as three separate letter names. A reader says alif, then lam, then mim, with a short stop between them. It is not read as a single word.

In Urdu the names are written الف, لام and میم. Many Pakistani readers also know the group as alif laam meem. The sounds differ a little between regions, but the three-part reading is the same.

A fuller guide to the sounds and the spoken length of each letter is on the muqattaat pronunciation page.

What Are the Letter Values of Alif Lam Mim?

Each of the three letters has a value in the Abjad system. Alif is the first letter of the order, so it counts as 1. Lam is the twelfth letter and counts as 30, and mim is the thirteenth and counts as 40.

ا 1 + ل 30 + م 40 = 71

This is only addition. The sum 71 is the total of three ordinary letter values, the same method used for any Arabic word.

1. Take each letter in turn: ا, ل, م.
2. Look up its value in the letter values chart: 1, 30 and 40.
3. Add the three values to get 71.

The Mashriqi and Maghribi orders give the same total here. These three letters keep one value in both systems. Where the orders do differ, the page on why values differ explains the reason.

What Happens When the Letter Names Are Spelled Out?

Each letter has a name that is itself written with letters. Historically, some writers also counted the spelled-out name. The table shows both values, as plain arithmetic.

The three written names add up to 272. Note also that the name لام happens to total 71, the same as the group of three letters.

The same caution applies to every number on this page. The values show how the letters are counted in the Abjad system. They do not show what the letters mean.

Do Other Openings Contain Alif Lam Mim?

Yes. Two other openings begin with the same three letters and then add one more. They are المص and المر, which open surah 7 and surah 13.

• المص adds sad (90), so its sum is 161.
• المر adds ra (200), so its sum is 271.

Surah 7 is al-Araf and surah 13 is ar-Rad. Each of them has its own sum and its own place in the book. A reader who looks up Alif Lam Mim should not mix these longer openings with the three-letter one.

These are separate openings with their own surahs. The full list of all 29 surahs shows every opening in one table.

How Can You Find the Opening in a Printed Quran?

A printed copy makes the opening easy to spot. Follow these steps for the first of the six surahs.

1. Turn to surah 2, al-Baqarah, which follows the short opening surah, al-Fatihah.
2. Find the line right after the Bismillah at the top of the surah.
3. Read the three letters, الم, which carry the first verse marker.

The other five surahs follow the same layout. Each one has the Bismillah, then the three letters as the first verse, then the text of the surah.

Where Do Alif, Lam and Mim Sit in the Alphabet?

The same three letters hold different places in the two Arabic orders. In the everyday alphabet order they sit far apart in the list. In the Abjad order, lam and mim are neighbors.

The difference between the two orders is covered on the Abjad and hijai order page. Only the Abjad order carries the values.

How Often Do These Three Letters Appear Across the Openings?

Alif and lam are the most frequent of all the muqattaat letters. Each appears in 13 of the 29 openings. Mim appears in 17.

That count comes from the openings that share the group. Six use Alif Lam Mim alone. Alif Lam Mim Sad and Alif Lam Mim Ra add one more letter.

Alif Lam Ra opens five more surahs and shares alif and lam with the group. Together these four openings account for all 13 openings that contain alif and lam. Each of those openings is listed in the muqattaat list.

Mim also turns up in the Ta Sin Mim and Ha Mim openings. So the letter is spread well beyond the six surahs on this page.

What Is the Run of Surahs From 29 to 32?

Four of the six surahs come one after another. Surah 29 is al-Ankabut, surah 30 is ar-Rum, surah 31 is Luqman and surah 32 is as-Sajdah.

Together these four hold 193 verses. They are all Meccan, and surah 33 does not open with letters. The next surah that does is Ya Sin, number 36.

The first two surahs are different. Al-Baqarah and Al Imran are side by side as well, but they are Medinan. So the six surahs fall in two blocks, one at the start of the book and one later on.

How Does Alif Lam Mim Connect to Abjad?

The connection is only through counting. Alif, lam and mim are ordinary letters, so each has a value, and the total follows from the standard chart. Writers throughout history added up such openings, and the muqattaat and Abjad page gives that wider background.

You can check the sum yourself with the phrase value calculator or the Abjad value calculator. The words and phrases section has more reference pages like this one.

The method is described on the methodology page. The abjad hawwaz memory words are a quick way to recall these values. They show why alif is 1 and why lam and mim follow at 30 and 40.

Sources and Further Reading

• Muqattaʿat, Wikipedia. The six surahs, their Meccan or Medinan setting, how the cluster is written and read, and the majority view.
• List of chapters in the Quran, Wikipedia. Surah numbers, names, verse counts, place and revelation order.
• Letter values and sums come from this site’s tested engine. See the methodology.

Frequently Asked Questions