Lost & Found 3

	Lost & Found *Ornamental Lam-Alif* in Arabic** Abu Dharr al-Ghiffari, a Companion, once asked the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, how many letters there were in the Arabic alphabet. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, answered,“Twenty nine.” Abu Dharr replied, “But surely there are twenty eight!” The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, getting angry, replied, “No, there are twenty nine. Lam-alif is a letter of its own.” Some years ago, a Sheikh in Damascus, who was gifted with the knowledge of letters and numbers, said that it was not very well known that the numerical equivalent (in all ancient languages each letter has numerical value) of the letter lam-alif was zero. This letter means no, not, or negation in Arabic. And Zero has a special place in that it occupies “No-thing.” Back \| Forward