Allah

==Typography==
[[File:Allah name in different languages.png|280px|thumbnail|The word ''Allah'' written in different [[writing system]]s]]

The word ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Allāh}}'' is always written without an [[aleph|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|alif}}]] to spell the ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|ā}}'' vowel. This is because the spelling was settled before Arabic spelling started habitually using ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|alif}}'' to spell ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|ā}}''. However, in vocalized spelling, a [[Dagger alif|small diacritic ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|alif}}'']] is added on top of the ''[[shadda|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|shaddah}}]]'' to indicate the pronunciation.

In the pre-Islamic [[Zabad inscription]],<ref>{{cite web
 | title=Zebed Inscription: A Pre-Islamic Trilingual Inscription In Greek, Syriac & Arabic From 512 CE 
 | url=http://www.islamic-awareness.org/History/Islam/Inscriptions/zebed.html
 | publisher=Islamic Awareness
 | date=17 March 2005
}}
</ref> God is referred to by the term {{lang|ar| الاله }}, that is, alif-lam-alif-lam-ha.<ref name=Kugener/> This presumably indicates ''Al-'ilāh'' = "the god", without ''alif'' for ''ā''.

Many Arabic type fonts feature special [[typographic ligature|ligatures]] for Allah.<ref name="Typ1">

* [http://www.smi.uib.no/ksv/ArabicFonts.html Arabic fonts and Mac OS X] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080310022047/http://www.smi.uib.no/ksv/ArabicFonts.html |date=10 March 2008 }}
* [http://www.smi.uib.no/ksv/ArabicProgsx.html Programs for Arabic in Mac OS X]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006005022/http://www.smi.uib.no/ksv/ArabicProgsx.html |date=6 October 2013 }}</ref>

Since [[Arabic script]] is used to write other texts rather than Koran only, rendering ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}}'' + ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}}'' + ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|hā’}}'' as the previous ligature is considered faulty which is the case with most common Arabic typefaces.

{{lquote|This simplified style is often preferred for clarity, especially in non-Arabic languages, but may not be considered appropriate in situations where a more elaborate style of calligraphy is preferred.
:—[[SIL International]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Scheherazade New |url=//software.sil.org/scheherazade/design/ |website=[[SIL International|SIL&nbsp;International]] |access-date=4 February 2022}}</ref>}}

===Unicode===
[[Unicode]] has a code point reserved for ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Allāh}}'', {{script/Arabic|ﷲ}} = U+FDF2, in the [[Arabic Presentation Forms-A]] block, which exists solely for "compatibility with some older, legacy character sets that encoded presentation forms directly";<ref>The Unicode Consortium. [https://www.unicode.org/faq/middleeast.html#5 FAQ - Middle East Scripts] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001110649/http://www.unicode.org/faq/middleeast.html#5 |date=1 October 2013 }}</ref><ref name="Uni">{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UFB50.pdf |title=''Unicode Standard 5.0'', p.479, 492 |access-date=14 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428184606/http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/UFB50.pdf|archive-date=28 April 2014}}</ref> this is discouraged for new text. Instead, the word ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Allāh}}'' should be represented by its individual Arabic letters, while modern font technologies will render the desired ligature.

The calligraphic variant of the word used as the [[emblem of Iran]] is encoded in Unicode, in the [[Miscellaneous Symbols]] range, at code point U+262B (☫). The [[#National flags with "Allah" written on them|flags that include the word]] are also present in the [[regional indicator symbol]]s of Unicode: 🇮🇶, 🇸🇦, 🇦🇫, 🇮🇷, 🇺🇿.