The most common words in the Quran (counted from the text)

The 25 most common words

#	Word	Pronounced	Meaning	Times
1	من	min / man	from; who, whoever	2,763
2	الله	Allāh	Allah	2,153
3	في	fī	in	1,185
4	ما	mā	what; not	1,010
5	إن	inna / in	indeed; if	966
6	لا	lā	no, not	812
7	الذين	alladhīna	those who	810
8	على	‘alā	on, upon	670
9	إلا	illā	except	664
10	ولا	wa-lā	and not	658
11	وما	wa-mā	and what; and not	646
12	أن	an	that, to	638
13	قال	qāla	he said	416
14	إلى	ilā	to, towards	405
15	لهم	lahum	for them	373
16	يا	yā	O (calling)	350
17	ومن	wa-min / wa-man	and from; and whoever	342
18	ثم	thumma	then	340
19	لكم	lakum	for you (plural)	337
20	به	bihi	with it, in him	327
21	كان	kāna	he was	323
22	بما	bimā	for what, with what	296
23	قل	qul	say!	294
24	الأرض	al-arḍ	the earth	287
25	ذلك	dhālika	that	280

Together, these 25 written forms make up 22% of the Quran: more than one word in every five.

Most common written forms	Share of all words in the Quran
Top 25	22%
Top 100	38%
Top 300	52%
Top 1,000	66%

The name Allah: 2,699 times

Counting every form, with or without a prefix (الله, لله, بالله, والله, فالله, تالله and others), the name Allah appears 2,699 times in our count, the figure usually cited.

How we counted

• Source: the Tanzil “simple clean” text of the Quran (riwayah of Hafs), which has no vowel marks, so the same written word is counted together.
• Basmalah: counted once, as the first verse of Al-Fatihah, and not at the head of the other surahs, where it is not a numbered verse.
• Written forms, not roots: a word with a prefix, such as ولا (“and not”), is counted separately from لا. Counting by root or dictionary form would merge many of these and change the order.
• Pause marks in the text were removed before counting.

Because of these choices, other lists differ slightly. The overall picture does not: 300 written forms cover half of the text.

Why learning common words helps

When you recite إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ or قُلْ and know what they mean, you start hearing the shape of each verse: who is speaking, who is addressed, what is being contrasted. Five minutes a day on a short word list, tied to the surahs you already know, builds understanding quickly. That is how our Quranic Arabic course teaches vocabulary, through the verses you recite.

For a wider plan, read how to understand the Quran; for the alphabet and vowels behind these words, see the Arabic alphabet and harakat. Other facts and figures are in how many surahs and ayahs are in the Quran and how many pages are in the Quran.