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At least Koran, Coran, Quran, and Qur'an are alternate English spellings for the name of the religious texts.

Is there a preferred spelling, and if so why? I've seen, for example, some discussion that Koran is preferred to Qur`an, but that's one person's opinion and doesn't address the other alternative forms, either.

I know that any English transliteration will be imperfect at best, but what should I consider when deciding how to spell this word in writing?

Flimzy
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    It doesn't really matter how you spell it, to be honest with you. – ashes999 Jun 19 '12 at 21:05
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    -1 The question is not about Islam but spellings of a word. – Muhammad Hasan Khan Jun 19 '12 at 21:12
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    @HasanKhan: I think it's relevant to an Islam site, since the Arabic language is such an important part of the Islamic faith, but if the community decides it doesn't fit here, that's fine with me. – Flimzy Jun 19 '12 at 21:14
  • Good question for one reason. many arabic words are spelled in a wrong way simply because no one said the opposite. so I think it is a good idea to know whats the best spelling that Muslims are fine with. Unlike Mohammed which is supposed to be MohammAd and Mosque which is supposed to be Masjid... –  Jun 19 '12 at 23:10
  • @HaLaBi you bring up an interesting point: how do we use Arabic words in English? But FYI, spelling is trivial, as long as people understand what you mean. – ashes999 Jun 19 '12 at 23:24
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    I think just special Quranic words should be discussed here, and general Arabic word should be discussed on Arabic language site (That is in proposal stage) – Real Dreams Jun 20 '12 at 02:09
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    I don't believe this is on-topic here. Where it might be on-topic is [English.SE]. Thanks. – Dynamic Jun 21 '12 at 12:22
  • @Reza: How does one determine if a word is "special" enough to be discussed here? – Flimzy Jun 21 '12 at 15:47
  • @Flimzy If expressing meaning of a word required Islamic knowledge then it can be discussed here, words like: Qiamat(قیامت), As'hab e Yamin (اصحاب الیمین), Forqan(فرقان), Sherk (شرک), ... – Real Dreams Jun 21 '12 at 16:08
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    @Reza: this should probably be brought up in a meta discussion so we can have an ongoing record of the community's decision on this matter. – Flimzy Jun 21 '12 at 16:15
  • @Flimzy Good job, I also invite users of Islam.ex to also contribute in Arabic site proposal. – Real Dreams Jun 21 '12 at 17:43

1 Answers1

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Asalamu wa alaikum,

The most preferred of the list is [Qur'an] , because it is the closest to the Arabic name, but all of the list is okay as long as it refers to the Qur'an. There are two preferred ones that sometimes are written and they are:

1.Qur'an and this is the preferred.

2.Quran

مجاهد
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