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Definite Article -'al ()
In Arabic, when the definite article is attached to words beginning with one of the so-called "sun letters", then the L (laam) is dropped in pronunciation (but not in spelling) and the sun letter is doubled (but again, in pronunciation, not in writing). The fourteen "sun letters" in Arabic are:
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Thus, 'abd + al + rahman is pronounced 'abdurrahman (servant of the lord) and dar + al + salaam (abode of peace) is dar 'assalaam.
In Arabic, the first sound of the definite article is a glottal stop, but this sound drops out altogether when it's in the middle of a phrase (even though nothing changes in writing). Thus, 'al "arab + wa + al-gharb sounds 'al"arab wal-gharb.
Persian, Pashto and Urdu employ these conventions only in Arabic names, phrases and expressions, with the appropriate substitutions for differences in the sounds of the sun letters. For example, the Arabic letter Daad has the value of Z in these three languages.