Dagger alif

Alif maksura with alif khanjariah above

Dagger alif or alif khanjariyya ألف خنجرية‎‎ is a small vertical line placed above an Arabic letter, and represents a long /a/. Dagger alif is written like a superscript of alif or like a vertical short line and placed above the letter.

The superscript (or dagger) alif (ألف خنجرية‎‎ alif khanjariyya), is written as a short vertical stroke on top of a consonant. It indicates a long /aː/ sound where alif is normally not written, e.g. <هٰذَا> or <رَحْمٰن‎>. The dagger alif occurs in only a few words, but these include some common ones; it is seldom written, however, even in fully vocalised texts. Most keyboards do not have dagger alif. The word <الله> (Allāh) is usually produced automatically by entering "alif lām lām hā’". The word consists of alif + ligature of doubled lām with a shadda and a dagger alif above lām.