Dagger alif

The dagger alif occurs in only a few modern words, but these include some common ones; it is seldom written, however, even in fully vocalised texts, except in the Qur'an.

The word الله (Allāh) is usually produced automatically by entering "alif lām lām hāʾ"; or in Arabic "ا ل ل ه".

There are two possible ways of representing the dagger alif in modern editions of Quran.

In the editions printed in the Middle East the dagger alif is written with fatḥah: الرَّحْمَٰنِ (a)r-raḥmāni.

In the editions printed in South Asia (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) the dagger alif is written without fatḥah: الرَّحْمٰنِ (a)r-raḥmāni.

Alif maqṣūra with alif khanjariah above it, often used in Egypt , Sudan , Iran , and various other countries to distinguish it from the dotless yā (ی) [ citation needed ] .