Are the letter forms of Arabic essential to the Qur'an?

Question

Are the existing letter forms/shapes of the Arabic alphabet an essential part of the Qur'an, or are they an arbitary choice made by humans as a means to *record* the Qur'an?In other words, if someone came up with a different writing system that could be transliterated back and forth from the Arabic alphabet *with no loss of information*, **would a transliteration of the Qur'an into such writing actually *be* the Qur'an or only an interpretation of it?**Alternatively, one could phrase this question as asking whether there are minimal standards for writing the letters of the Qur'an, a violation of which invalidates that copy, is *haram*, or is otherwise problematic. For example, would it be valid for someone to claim to a Qur'an copyist that, "Your *lams* have unacceptably large flourishes, your *mims* have an extra small serif that has no precedent and just looks weird, and the loops on your *qafs* are 5% tighter than the benchmark standard as defined by the Standard Fatwa on Best Practices in Literacy. Your Qur'an is invalid.", or is the requirement only that the copy be *understandable* as a Qur'an?

Answer 1

Interesting question. There is certainly not one standard script. A variety of well established scripts have been used over the centuries and in different parts of the Muslim world. Also, calligraphy is an Islamic art form and there are calligraphers today who are experimenting with different scripts in which religious texts are written. I don't think anyone has a problem with that.

However, I think there would be a problem with writing the Qur'an in what might be considered a disrespectful way, which might include transliterating it into a completely different alphabet. Although there is such a thing as good handwriting and bad handwriting, I don't believe anyone would consider a Qur'an invalid just because some of the letters were formed in an unconventional way.