Video narration
Where does an Arabic letter's sound actually come from? Your mouth is not one simple sound-making spot. As you speak, different parts shape sounds in different regions. Each Arabic letter has a particular place where its sound is formed. Use your own mouth as a map with five broad zones: the mouth cavity, al-jawf; the throat, al-halq; the tongue, al-lisan; the lips, ash-shafatan; and the nasal passage, al-khayshum. These are regions, not five tiny points. As you learn a letter, let the map guide your attention: is its sound formed in the cavity, throat, by the tongue, at the lips, or through the nasal passage? You do not need every exact point yet; start with these broad places in your own mouth. So, an Arabic letter's sound comes from its makhraj: the place where that sound is formed, in one of these five zones.