Dagger alif
{{Short description|Form of the Arabic letter alif}}
File:khanjariah.svg, Sudan, Iran, and various other countries to distinguish it from the dotless yā (ی){{citation needed|date=September 2023}}.]]
The dagger alif ({{langx|ar|ألف خنجرية}} {{Transliteration|ar|ALA|alif khanjarīyah}}) or superscript alif is written as a short vertical stroke on top of an Arabic letter. It indicates a long {{IPA|/aː/}} sound where an alif is normally not written, e.g. {{lang|ar|هَٰذَا}} {{Transliteration|ar|ALA|hādhā}} or {{lang|ar|رَحْمَٰن}} {{Transliteration|ar|ALA|raḥmān}}. The dagger alif occurs in only a few modern words, but these include some common ones; it is seldom written, however, even in fully vocalised texts, except in the Qur'an. As Wright notes "[alif] was at first more rarely marked than the other long vowels, and hence it happens that, at a later period, after the invention of the vowel-points, it was indicated in some very common words merely by a fatḥa [i.e. the dagger alif.]" Most keyboards do not have the dagger alif. The word {{lang|ar|الله}} ({{Transliteration|ar|ALA|Allāh}}) is usually produced automatically by entering "{{Transliteration|ar|ALA|alif lām lām hāʾ}}";
or in Arabic "ا ل ل ه".
The word consists of alif + ligature of doubled {{Transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}} with a shadda and a dagger alif above {{Transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}}.
With fatḥah
There are two possible ways of representing the dagger alif in modern editions of Quran. In the editions printed in the Middle East the dagger alif is written with fatḥah: {{lang|ar|الرَّحْمَٰنِ}} {{Transliteration|ar|ALA|(a)r-raḥmāni}}. In the editions printed in South Asia (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) the dagger alif is written without fatḥah: {{lang|ar|الرَّحْمٰنِ}} {{Transliteration|ar|ALA|(a)r-raḥmāni}}.