PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/The Quran

How to Cite the Quran in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for the Quran starts with the title of the translation you read, in italics, then Translated by and the translator's name, the publisher, and the year. For one you read online, give the website's name in italics and the URL in place of the publisher. The first in-text citation gives the title without its opening The, a comma, and the surah and verse, with a period between them: (Qur'an, 2.185).

The format

Title of the Translation. Translated by First Name Last Name, Publisher, Year. (Online: Title of the Translation. Translated by First Name Last Name. Website Name, www.url.com.)

PERRLA MLA Experts · Updated October 27, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

In PERRLA, type Quran or Koran into the reference search and choose Religious Work, or pick Religious Work from the reference types. PERRLA can't look up a Quran translation's details for you, so fill them in from your copy's title page or the website.

  • Contributors: add the translator with the role Translator, and PERRLA writes Translated by after the title. For a study edition, add its editors with the role Editor instead. Leave out any author.
  • Title of the Work: the title as your edition spells it: The Qur'an, The Koran, or a translation's own name, like The Clear Quran.
  • Publication Year, the publisher or website's name in Publishers, and the URL if you read it online.
  • Original Publication Year: only when your copy reprints a translation that first came out earlier. PERRLA puts it right after the title.

When you cite a verse, choose Book, chapter, & verse in the citation box, leave Book empty, and type the surah and verse in Chap: Verse, like 2:185. PERRLA puts the title in front and turns the colon into the period MLA uses. For later citations of the same translation, open Adjust parts and uncheck Author's name, and the citation shows the numbers alone: (2.186).

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Title of the translation

Cite the translation you actually read. With no author to lead the entry, it starts with the translation's title in italics and title case, followed by a period. Spell it the way your edition does: The Qur'an, The Quran, and The Koran are all right when they match the title page. A translation with a name of its own, like The Clear Quran, uses that name.

The Qur'an.

Quoting more than one translation? Each one gets its own Works Cited entry.

2. Original date (optional)

When your copy reprints a translation that first came out in an earlier year, you can give that year right after the title, followed by a period. Abdel Haleem's translation first appeared in 2004, and the Oxford World's Classics paperback many students own is the 2008 reissue.

2004.

This is the translation's first year, not the date of the Quran's revelation. Don't put a date for the original text here.

3. Translator or editors

After the title, write Translated by and the translator's name in normal order, first name first, just as the title page prints it. Initials stay initials. End with a comma.

Translated by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem,

Leave off titles like Dr. or Professor. A study edition with commentary names its editors here instead, with Edited by. With three or more editors, give the first one and et al.: Edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr et al.,

4. Publisher and year (print)

For a print book or e-book, give the publisher and the year of your copy, separated by a comma, and end with a period. MLA shortens University Press to UP.

Oxford UP, 2008.

5. Website and URL (online)

For a translation you read on a website or app, the site is the container. End the translator's part with a period, then give the site's name in italics, a comma, and the URL without https://. Quran.com gives no date for its translations, so there's no date.

Quran.com, quran.com/.

If the site does date the translation, the date goes before the URL. For an undated site, you can add Accessed and the day you read it at the end: Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

Examples

M. A. S. Abdel Haleem's translation in the Oxford World's Classics paperback, cited for 2:185, the verse that lets anyone who is ill make up missed Ramadan fasts on other days. The translation first came out in 2004, so that year can go right after the title.

  • In-text citation(Qur'an, 2.185)
  • Narrative citationAs The Qur'an renders it, … (2.185).

A translation on a Quran website

Quran.com shows Mustafa Khattab's The Clear Quran as its English translation unless you choose another. This one is cited for 5:32: "whoever saves a life, it will be as if they saved all of humanity." The site gives no date for the translation.

  • In-text citation(Clear Quran, 5.32)
  • Narrative citationIn The Clear Quran, saving one life is "as if they saved all of humanity" (5.32).

A study edition with editors

The Study Quran, a translation with verse-by-verse commentary from an editorial team led by Seyyed Hossein Nasr. In MLA, the editors don't move to the front: the entry still starts with the title, and the editors follow it, with the first editor named and et al. for the rest.

  • In-text citation(Study Quran, 5.32)
  • Narrative citationAs translated in The Study Quran, … (5.32).

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation for the Quran gives the title of the translation in italics, a comma, and the surah and verse numbers with a period between them. Use those numbers, never page numbers: they're the same in every translation and every printing.

  • First citation: the title, without a leading The, a comma, then surah.verse: (Qur'an, 2.185)
  • A range of verses: join them with an en dash: (Qur'an, 2.183–85)
  • Later citations: once you've named the translation, give the numbers alone: (2.186). Name the title again only when you switch to a different translation.
  • A long title: shorten it to the first noun and the words before it that describe it, dropping the subtitle and a leading The: (Study Quran, 5.32)
  • Title in your sentence: put the numbers alone in parentheses at the end: In The Clear Quran, saving one life is "as if they saved all of humanity" (5.32).

You can also give a surah's name in place of its number, followed by the verses, the way the MLA Style Center does with Surat al-Waqi'a 17–18. Writing about the Quran in general, not quoting a translation? Write the Quran in plain type, with no italics and no citation.

Common mistakes

  • (Qur'an, 2:185)(Qur'an, 2.185)MLA separates the surah and verse with a period, not a colon.
  • (Qur'an, 2004/2008, 2:185)(Qur'an, 2.185)That's APA. MLA leaves the years out of the in-text citation and uses a period between surah and verse.
  • The Qur'an (M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, Trans.).The Qur'an. Translated by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem,MLA spells out Translated by and puts it after the title, not in parentheses.
  • (Qur'an, p. 21)(Qur'an, 2.185)Page numbers only work for one printing. Surah and verse numbers find the passage in any copy.
  • The Holy Quran. Quran.com.The Clear Quran. Translated by Mustafa Khattab. Quran.com, quran.com/.Quran websites let you pick from many translations. Name the one you actually read, credit its translator, and give the site in italics with its URL.

Quick checklist

  • No author: the translation's title comes first, in italics
  • Original year after the title, only for a reprinted translation
  • Translated by and the translator's name, first name first
  • Print: publisher (UP for University Press) and year
  • Online: the website in italics and the URL
  • In the text: title, then surah.verse, never a page

Questions students ask

Do you need a Works Cited entry for the Quran in MLA?

Yes, when you quote a translation: the translation you used gets an entry, and your first in-text citation points to it by title. The MLA Style Center notes one exception: if you read the Arabic and translate it yourself, there's no entry, and you cite the surah and verse alone, like (Qur'an 56.17–18).

Should I write Quran, Qur'an, or Koran?

In the Works Cited entry and the citations that point to it, copy the spelling your edition uses, since that's its title. In your own sentences, pick one spelling and use it the whole way through. Quran and Qur'an are the most common today.

Do I use a colon or a period between surah and verse in MLA?

A period: (Qur'an, 2.185). MLA uses periods between the parts of a text's divisions, so 2:185 becomes 2.185 in your citation. PERRLA makes the switch for you.

Can I put the translator first in MLA?

Yes, when your paper is about the translation itself. Start the entry with the translator's name, inverted, and the word translator: Abdel Haleem, M. A. S., translator. The Qur'an. Your in-text citations then use the translator's name. Most papers that quote verses start with the title instead.

How do I cite the Quran from an app or website?

Cite the translation you read on it: its title, Translated by and the translator's name, then the site or app's name in italics and its URL. You need one entry for the whole translation, not one for each surah's page.

How do I cite the commentary in a study Quran?

For the translated verses and the verse-by-verse commentary, use the study edition's entry: the title, Edited by and the first editor's name with et al., the publisher, and the year. Give the surah and verse for a verse, and the page number for a commentary note. The essays at the back each have their own author, so an essay you quote gets its own entry: the essay's author, its title in quotation marks, then the book as the container, with the essay's page range.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 5 (the core elements, other contributors, containers, and optional original dates) and chapter 6 (citing scripture by division, not page, and shortening titles), and the MLA Style Center's answers on citing Qur'an chapters and verses (21 May 2018, with its Abdel Haleem translator-first example), citing web pages of a sacred text (one entry for the whole site), and shortening a long title. Example sources carried over from the APA 7 page and re-checked October 27, 2026: Abdel Haleem's Oxford World's Classics edition (ISBN 9780199535958; translation first published 2004, reissued 2008) from OUP's listings and the HathiTrust catalog record; Quran.com's 5:32 text and its translation credit (Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran); and HarperCollins's page and library records for The Study Quran (HarperOne, 2015; Nasr editor-in-chief, Dagli, Dakake, and Lumbard general editors, Rustom assistant editor).

PERRLA builds the Quran entry with the translator in the right place and turns every surah:verse into MLA's surah.verse.

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