Arabic Small High Upright Rectangular Zero

Read the marked alif at a stop; skip its long vowel when continuing.

The mark is called ṣifr mustaṭīl qāʾim in the Hafs tradition, one transmitted way of reciting the Quran. It sits over an alif: during waṣl (joining on to the next word), leave out its long “a”; at waqf (stopping), pronounce it. Some Hafs guides group it among the “seven alifs,” but the rule is not universal across reading traditions or editions.

This sign belongs to a wider history of marks added to Quran manuscripts to guide recitation. Red dots were the standard vowel notation in Quran manuscripts from the early eighth through the late tenth or eleventh century. A surviving codex from the late eighth or ninth century uses a rarer system that marks vowels with letter shapes. These examples show that notation developed in more than one way; they do not date ۠ itself.

How do I type ۠?

Put ۠ after its base alif; a shaping font positions it above.

For a Quran/Tanzil text pipeline, Text-Fabric documents the ASCII token " for ۠. This token is specific to that data format, not a general keyboard shortcut.

A dotted circle may appear without a base alif; it is a renderer's fallback, not part of ۠. If the mark stacks oddly, the font or Arabic shaping support may be responsible.