Koran or Qur'an

I have written this short article, because Muslims keep telling me that I am misspelling the name of their Scriptures.

I spell the name of the Islamic Scriptures as “Koran”, but some people keep telling me that I should spell the name of the book as “Qur'an.” I deny that there is anything wrong with my use of the word “Koran” and that it is a perfectly legitimate spelling.

I believe that both “Koran” & “Qur'an” are both equally valid ways of spelling the name of the Islamic Scriptures and that there are no religious implications one way or the other whether you are a Muslim or non-Muslim.

Have a look at covers of the two translations of the Islamic Scriptures below.

The translation on the left is by Norman Dawood (a non-Muslim) and the one on the right is by Mohammed Pickthall (a Muslim).

Both translations use the word “Koran” and not “Qur’an” as I do. There is a very simple explanation for this. The spelling “Qur’an” is American English and “Koran” is British English. As I am a native speaker of British English, I use British spellings just as Dawood and Pickthall do.

I therefore will continue to use the spelling Koran, but I accept that other people are perfectly entitled to use “Qur’an” if they wish. Both spellings are equally valid.