Referencing the Qur'an: A Proposal, with Illustrative Translations and Discussion

However, there is no standard way of referring to suras and ayas in English prose. Some scholars opt for ‘chapter’/’Chapter’ and ‘Verse’/’verse’ to render them, abbreviating them ‘ch.’/’Ch.’ (pl. ‘chs’/’Chs’), and ‘V.’/’v.’ (pl. ‘Vv.’/’vv.’). I am not against these – though there are, to be sure, a number of arguments for not using terms borrowed from English – but given that ‘sura’ (‘surah’ too) is now part of English, there is, to my mind, no reason not to use it unitalicised. I suggest the h-less form, viz. sura.