How is hamzat-al-wasl pronounced at the beginning of an ayah?

Question

I know that at the beginning of a noun, when the *hamzat-al-wasl* in the definite article الْ is pronounced, it is always pronounced as "al-" (i.e. with a *fatha*). However, using [Al-Fatihah 6](http://quran.com/1/6) as an example, the *hamzat-al-wasl* in اهْدِنَا is pronounced "ihdinaa" (i.e. with a *kasra*).Visually, there is nothing to distinguish the *hamzat-al-wasl* in either case; they are both written exactly the same. How should one know which vowel to pronounce when the *hamzat-al-wasl* comes at the beginning of an *ayah* (i.e. is not absorbed into the preceding vowel), or is it just a matter of learning and memorizing how each word would be pronounced when it comes up?

Answer 1

When we teach Quran to kids, we always put hamza with Alif.

أَ. أرايت

أُ - أحي

أْ - سبأ

إِ - إهدنا

and usually when it is a silent sound we just put alif without Hamza ا - رينا لا تآخذنا إن نسينا أو اخطأنا

Go to the back of the mushaf and you will find rules of reading Quran. In regular academic Arabic, you shouldn’t encounter this issue at all.