My Personal Arabic Transliteration Scheme

The following list is the general transliteration system that I use for Arabic on this site.

As many different transliteration systems exist, I try not to use any other than my own otherwise things become very confusing. I base my own system upon functionality, aesthetic value and intelligibility. It works well as its symbols are all accessible and easy to understand. It looks good in that it flows well and does not use obscure symbols or numbers. It is easy to understand and corresponds well with the original Arabic.

For any further posts I make this will serve as a general guide to my transliteration scheme. I can’t guarantee that even I myself will be completely observant of it as Arabic transliteration is so varied that I too find it hard at times to stick to even my own preferred system, especially when translating common terms such as Iman (faith), which I would write according to the following system as ‘imān.

In the first column is the Arabic letter or letters, the second is the symbol I use to transliterate them and in the final column is an example of the symbol being used in a word.

Letter	Symbol	Example
ﺀ	‘	mā‘ (water)
أَ	‘a	‘ab· (father)
ٲُ	‘u	‘umm (mother)
إِ	‘i	‘in (if)
ﺏ	b	bāb· (door)
ﺕ	t	tawbah (repentance)
ﺙ	th	thiyāb· (clothing)
ﺝ	j	jannah (paradise)
ﺡ	ħ	ħadīth (saying)
ﺥ	kh	khayr (good)
ﺩ	d	dam (blood)
ﺫ	đ	‘ađān (call to prayer)
ﺭ	r	rabb· (lord)
ﺯ	z	rizq· (sustenance)
ﺱ	s	salām (peace)
ﺵ	sh	sharh (explanation)
ﺹ	s	sadaqah (charity)
ﺽ	d	ramadān
ﻁ	t	tayyib (good)
ﻅ	đ	đulm (oppression)
ﻉ	`	`ayn (eye)
ﻍ	gh	afghānistān
ﻑ	f	`afwan (sorry)
ﻕ	q	qum (stand!)
ﻙ	k	makkah (Mecca)
ﻝ	l	laysa (isn’t)
ﻡ	m	muslim
ﻥ	n	nawm (sleep)
ﻩ	h	hiya (she)
ﻭ	w	wa (and)
ﻱ	y	yawm (day)
َي	ay	bayna (between)
ِي	ī	fī (in)
ﺓ	h, t	sayyārah, sayyāratun (car)
َى	ā	taq·wā (piety)
ِى	ī	fī (in)
َو	aw	law (if only)
ُو	ū	rūh (soul)
Qalqalah	·	haqq· (truth)
Separating ambiguous letters	-	mus-haf
Definite Article (Al)	al-	‘al-bayt (the house)