Uthmani vs Indo Pak Script: 10 Differences, Side by Side

Pick up a mushaf in Medina and another in Lahore, and the pages look surprisingly different. The letters are shaped differently, the small marks above and below the words don't match, and someone who learned to read on one can stumble over the other.

Yet both contain exactly the same Quran: the same words, in the same order, read in the same way. What differs is how the text is written down: which signs are used to guide the reader's pronunciation. This guide walks through the differences that matter, with real examples from both scripts.

Two scripts, one Quran

The Uthmani script, as it is usually called today, is the style of the Madinah mushaf, printed by the King Fahd Glorious Quran Printing Complex in Medina since the 1980s and written by the Syrian calligrapher ʿUthmān Ṭāhā. It is the standard across the Arab world and has been distributed in huge numbers around the globe. (The name "Uthmani" refers to the spelling of the Quran's text, which goes back to the copies sent out by the Caliph ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān.)

The IndoPak script is the style used across Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, and by South Asian communities in Britain, South Africa and elsewhere. It is written in a bolder style, with more marks on the page, and was shaped over generations of teaching the Quran to people whose first language is not Arabic.

Both follow the same recitation, Ḥafṣ from ʿĀṣim, which is how most Muslims in the world read. The early copies of the Quran were written without vowel marks or dots; these were added over the following centuries to help readers, and different regions settled on different conventions. That is all these two scripts are: two conventions for marking the same recitation.

Here is the second verse of Al-Fatihah in each:

The differences, one by one

The connecting alif

Many words begin with an alif that is only pronounced when you start reading from that word, such as the "al" at the start of al-ḥamdu. The Madinah mushaf marks this connecting alif (hamzat al-waṣl) with a small sign like the head of a ṣād: ٱ. The IndoPak script leaves it as a plain alif, and gives it a vowel when a reading starts there, as in the first word above.

The hamza on alif

Where a word begins with a hamza, the Madinah mushaf writes the hamza sign on the alif (أ or إ). The IndoPak script usually writes a plain alif with just the vowel:

Lengthening letters and the sukun

This is the difference that trips readers up the most, because the two scripts use the sukun (the small mark meaning "no vowel") in opposite ways on the long vowels.

When an alif, wāw or yāʾ simply lengthens the vowel before it, the Madinah mushaf leaves it bare, with no mark at all. The IndoPak script puts a jazm (its sukun) on it:

Silent letters

Some letters are written but never pronounced. The Madinah mushaf marks them with a small circle. The IndoPak script leaves them bare, which is consistent with its own rule: since every pronounced letter carries a mark, a bare letter is a silent one. In ulāʾika ("those"), the wāw is silent:

So the same bare letter means opposite things in the two scripts. In the Madinah mushaf it is lengthened; in IndoPak it is silent.

Small alif and the standing fatha

Some words carry a long "ā" that is not written as a full alif. The Madinah mushaf writes a fatha followed by a small alif. The IndoPak script uses a single vertical stroke, the standing fatha (khaṛī zabar in Urdu). You can see it in the name of Allah too:

Occasionally the IndoPak script writes a full alif where the Madinah mushaf has the small one, as in ṣirāṭ in Al-Fatihah 1:7:

"His" and "him": small wāw, small yāʾ

When the pronoun "-hu" or "-hi" (his, him) is lengthened, the Madinah mushaf adds a small wāw or yāʾ after it. The IndoPak script turns the vowel itself around: an inverted ḍamma (ulṭā pesh) or a standing kasra (khaṛī zer):

Final yāʾ

At the end of a word, the IndoPak script usually writes yāʾ without its two dots, as in Urdu and Persian handwriting. The Madinah mushaf keeps the dots:

When nūn merges into the next letter

In tajweed, a nūn or tanwīn often merges into the letter after it (idghām) or is hidden (ikhfāʾ). The Madinah mushaf shows this through what it leaves out: the nūn gets no sukun, and where it merges completely, the next letter gets a shadda. Where the nūn is pronounced clearly, it does get a sukun. The IndoPak script writes the jazm on the nūn either way:

Compare min ʿilmihi later in Ayatul Kursi, where the nūn is pronounced clearly and both scripts mark it:

The Madinah mushaf also uses two styles of tanwīn: the two marks drawn one above the other where it is pronounced clearly, and staggered where it merges or is hidden. The IndoPak script writes tanwīn the same way throughout and shows a merge by putting a shadda on the next letter instead:

Stop signs

Both scripts place small letters above the line to show where a reader may or should pause. The Madinah mushaf uses six signs, including ـۚ (stopping or continuing are both fine), ـۖ (continuing is better) and ـۗ (stopping is better). The IndoPak script follows an older and fuller system, with signs such as ـؕ (ṭāʾ, a complete stop), and it marks many more places, sometimes stacking several signs together. In Al-Baqarah 2:2, both scripts place the paired three-dot sign ـۛ on two neighbouring words, meaning pause at one of them but not both; the IndoPak text adds more signs alongside it:

The page

Most Madinah mushafs have 604 pages of 15 lines, and every page ends at the end of a verse, so the page numbers are the same in every copy. Popular IndoPak editions have 13, 15 or 16 lines a page, and in the margins they mark each rukūʿ: a section of a surah, shown with the letter ʿayn (ع), traditionally used to divide the recitation in prayer. In South Asia a juz is usually called a pārah or sipārah; see which para each surah is in.

At a glance

	Uthmani (Madinah)	IndoPak
Connecting alif	Marked with a small ṣād	Plain alif
Hamza at the start of a word	Written on the alif	Usually left out; the vowel is written
Lengthening alif, wāw, yāʾ	Bare	Jazm (sukun)
Silent letters	Small circle	Bare
Hidden or merged nūn	No sukun on the nūn	Jazm on the nūn
Long "ā" without an alif	Fatha with a small alif	Standing fatha
Final yāʾ	With dots	Usually without dots
Stop signs	Six signs, used sparingly	More signs, used more often

Which one should you read?

Whichever you can read most fluently. Neither script is more correct than the other; they are two ways of writing the same recitation, and both are printed under the supervision of Quran scholars. Most people simply read the script they learned as children.

Switching is easier than it looks. Most of the difference comes down to the rules above, especially the opposite meanings of a bare letter. Many readers find it helps to:

• Read a short surah they already know by heart in the new script, so the words are familiar and only the marks are new.
• Read slowly at first and pay attention to the long vowels and silent letters.
• Listen to a recitation while following along, so the ear can check the eye.

Reading both on Quran Surfer

You can switch between the two at any time. Open the script menu in the reader (the button showing "Uthmani, English") and choose Uthmani or IndoPak. The Uthmani text is set in the King Fahd Complex's own typeface; the IndoPak text uses Scheherazade New, a typeface that supports all of its marks. With the Uthmani script you can also switch on Tajweed colours, which colour each letter by the rule that applies to it.

There is also a third option, Simple, which writes the Quran in modern Arabic spelling. It is not a mushaf script, but it can help new readers who learned Arabic from ordinary books.

Try it with Al-Fatihah or Ayatul Kursi, and play the recitation while you read.

Sources

The examples above are taken from the Quran text published by quran.com: the King Fahd Complex's Hafs text for the Uthmani script, and its IndoPak text. Printed IndoPak mushafs vary a little between publishers, so a mushaf on your shelf may differ in small details.