How to spell SubhanAllah: every version people type
subhanallah, subxanallah, SubhanAllah. One Arabic phrase, سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ, meaning glory be to Allah.
The answer
subhanallah is a common spelling of SubhanAllah. It means glory be to Allah. Arabic writes it سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ, one fixed spelling, while English writes it many ways because the transliteration is done by ear. Every version below means exactly the same thing.
This phrase contains two sounds that English does not have: the h of حان, made in the throat, and the long a that follows it. That is why the English spellings scatter so widely. All of them mean the same thing.
Every spelling of SubhanAllah, and what each one means
subhanallah
SubhanAllah means "glory be to Allah", declaring Allah free of any fault or imperfection. It is said in wonder at something beautiful and in dismay at something wrong.
Why people write it this way. This is the standard transliteration. The capital A is a convention marking where the second word begins.
subxanallah
Subxanallah is SubhanAllah written with an x for the Arabic ح. It means "glory be to Allah". The x is not an English sound here; it stands in for a throat h.
Why people write it this way. Somali and some Latin-script Arabic conventions use x for ح, which is why this spelling is common among Somali speakers and in chat transliteration.
subhan allah
Subhan Allah, written as two words, means "glory be to Allah". It is the same phrase as SubhanAllah; the space simply reflects that Arabic has two separate words here.
Why people write it this way. Arabic writes سبحان and الله separately, so the spaced form is arguably the more accurate transliteration.
subhanalah
Subhanalah is a spelling of SubhanAllah, meaning "glory be to Allah". The name Allah contains a doubled l that is missing here.
Why people write it this way. The doubled lam in الله is written with a shadda and is rarely heard as two distinct sounds by English speakers.
sobhanallah
Sobhanallah is a spelling of SubhanAllah, meaning "glory be to Allah". The first vowel is a short u in Arabic, though many pronunciations round it towards an o.
Why people write it this way. Persian, Turkish and Egyptian pronunciations round the damma vowel, so the o spelling reflects real speech rather than a mistake.
subhanallahi wa bihamdihi
SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi means "glory be to Allah and praise be to Him". A hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari 6405 reports that saying it a hundred times daily removes sins even if they were like the foam of the sea.
Why people write it this way. This is the longer phrase rather than a variant spelling, and people often search it after hearing it once.
Which spelling of SubhanAllah is correct?
In Arabic, one: سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ. In English, none is official, because English has no standard body for transliterating Arabic and several of the sounds have no English letter. Writing subhanallah is not a mistake in the way a misspelled English word is a mistake. It is one reasonable attempt at writing down a sound that English does not contain.
If you want the most accurate written form, use the Arabic. If you want the most widely recognised English form, use SubhanAllah.
Full meaning, usage and sources: SubhanAllah meaning. How to say it out loud: how to pronounce SubhanAllah.
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