The Quran

1What the Quran is

The word Qur'an means "recitation" or "that which is read aloud". For Muslims, the Quran is the direct word of Allah – not a book about God, but His speech, revealed through the angel Jibril to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. It did not come all at once but piece by piece, over about twenty-three years, in Makkah and later in Madinah. Often verses responded to what people were living through, asking about or needing at that moment.

The Quran calls itself guidance: "Indeed, this Quran guides to that which is most upright" Quran 17:9. And it invites reflection: "A blessed Book which We have sent down to you, so that they may reflect upon its verses and that people of understanding may take heed" Quran 38:29.

It gives itself many names, and each shows one of its sides: al-Kitab, "the Book", about which there is "no doubt, a guidance for those mindful of Allah" Quran 2:2; al-Furqan, "the Criterion" between truth and falsehood Quran 25:1; adh-Dhikr, "the Reminder" Quran 15:9; and Nur, "a clear light" Quran 4:174. It describes itself as confirming the scriptures before it and as a guardian over them Quran 5:48.

2The first revelation

Before his prophethood, the Prophet ﷺ would often withdraw to the cave of Hira on a mountain near Makkah to reflect and worship Allah. There, in the month of Ramadan, the angel Jibril came to him and recited the first verses of the Quran to be revealed. The Mother of the Believers Aishah described this moment in detail (reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim):

It is striking: the story of revelation begins with reading, with the pen and with knowledge. The Quran calls the night in which its revelation began the Night of Decree: "Indeed, We sent it down in the Night of Decree" Quran 97:1. After a pause, revelation resumed with the opening of Surah al-Muddaththir: "O you who are wrapped in your cloak, arise and warn" Quran 74:1–2 – and from then on it continued until shortly before the Prophet's ﷺ passing.

3Revelation over twenty-three years

The Quran came down in portions – sometimes a few verses, sometimes a whole surah. The Prophet's ﷺ opponents asked why it was not revealed all at once, and the Quran answers: "Thus it is, so that We may strengthen your heart thereby, and We have recited it in measured stages" Quran 25:32. And: "It is a Quran which We have divided, so that you may recite it to the people at a measured pace, and We have sent it down in stages" Quran 17:106.

How did revelation come? When a Companion asked, the Prophet ﷺ said that sometimes it came like the ringing of a bell, which was the hardest for him, and sometimes the angel took the form of a man and spoke to him. Aishah added that she had seen revelation come to him on a very cold day, and when it left him his forehead was dripping with sweat (al-Bukhari 2).

Many verses were revealed in connection with a particular event or question – scholars call this asbab an-nuzul, the occasions of revelation. Surah al-Mujadilah, for instance, begins: "Allah has heard the words of the woman who pleads with you concerning her husband" Quran 58:1. A woman, Khawlah bint Tha'labah, had come to the Prophet ﷺ in distress about her marriage, and the answer came in the Quran. Knowing such contexts helps to understand a verse, while its message stays valid beyond the moment.

Gradual revelation also shows the wisdom of a good teacher. Wine, for example, was not forbidden in a single step: first the Quran said that its harm is greater than its benefit Quran 2:219, then that one should not approach prayer while intoxicated Quran 4:43, and finally it was forbidden Quran 5:90–91. Scholars differ on which verse was the very last to be revealed; one view, reported from Ibn Abbas, names the verse: "And fear a Day when you will be returned to Allah" Quran 2:281.

4Makki and Madani surahs

Most scholars call a surah Makki if it was revealed before the Hijra in 622 and Madani if it was revealed after it – regardless of exactly where the verses came down. In the labels printed in most copies today, 86 surahs are Makki and 28 Madani; scholars differ about a few surahs, and some surahs contain verses from both periods.

The two periods have their own character:

• Makki surahs are often shorter, with short verses, a strong rhythm and powerful images. They speak above all of belief in the One God, the Hereafter, the earlier prophets, the signs in creation and moral responsibility. They often address people in general: "O mankind".
• Madani surahs are often longer, with longer verses. They additionally address the life of a growing community: worship, family, inheritance, trade, law, war and peace, and relations with the People of the Book. They often address the believers: "O you who believe".

Knowing whether a passage is Makki or Madani helps you understand it: the Makki verses lay the foundations of faith, and the Madani verses build a society on those foundations.

5Structure

The Quran consists of 114 surahs (chapters) of very different lengths. The longest is al-Baqarah with 286 verses; the shortest have only three. According to the Kufan count, which most printed copies today follow, it contains 6,236 verses (ayat). Other classical counting traditions arrive at slightly different totals because they place verse breaks differently – the text itself is the same.

Every surah except one, Surah at-Tawbah (9), opens with the basmala, "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful"; it also appears within Surah an-Naml Quran 27:30, so that it occurs 114 times in all. The first surah, al-Fatiha, is called "the Mother of the Book" and "the seven oft-repeated verses" Quran 15:87; every Muslim recites it in each of the daily prayers. After it, the surahs are arranged roughly from long to short. Twenty-nine surahs open with single letters, such as Alif Lam Mim; many scholars say that their full meaning is known to Allah alone.

For regular reading, the Quran is divided into:

• 30 parts (juz', plural ajza') of roughly equal length,
• 60 hizb, two in each juz',
• and each hizb into four quarters (rub' al-hizb), 240 in all, marked in the margin of most copies.

Many copies from South Asia also mark seven manzil (stages, for completing the Quran in a week) and smaller sections called ruku'. In the margins you will also find signs for the places of prostration (sajdat at-tilawah), where one prostrates during recitation; the schools of law differ slightly on their number and status. Many Muslims read one juz' a day during Ramadan and so complete the entire Quran in a month.

The order of the surahs in the book is not chronological. It follows the arrangement the Prophet ﷺ himself taught, in which his Companions recited the Quran.

6Compilation

During the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime, the Quran was memorised and at the same time written down by scribes – among them Zayd ibn Thabit and Ubayy ibn Ka'b – on palm stalks, parchment, flat stones and bones. Every Ramadan, Jibril reviewed the Quran with the Prophet ﷺ, and in the year of his passing he reviewed it with him twice (al-Bukhari).

After his passing, many Companions who knew the Quran by heart fell at the Battle of Yamamah. Umar then urged the first caliph, Abu Bakr, to gather the Quran into a single collection. Abu Bakr entrusted Zayd ibn Thabit with the task, and Zayd took the greatest care to include only what existed in writing and was confirmed by witnesses. This is how al-Bukhari reports it in his Sahih. These pages were later kept with Hafsah, the daughter of Umar.

As Islam spread, Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman noticed during a campaign in Armenia and Azerbaijan that Muslims from different regions were arguing about how to recite. He urged the third caliph, Uthman, to act. Uthman had copies made by a committee led by Zayd, with Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr, Sa'id ibn al-As and Abd ar-Rahman ibn al-Harith; where they differed in spelling, they wrote according to the dialect of Quraysh, in which the Quran had been revealed (al-Bukhari). The copies were sent to the major cities – reports differ on how many – and other personal copies were set aside, so that the community would gather around one text. This Uthmanic mushaf is the basis of every copy of the Quran you hold in your hands today.

Some of the oldest surviving Quran manuscripts, such as leaves held in Birmingham, Tübingen and Sana'a, have been radiocarbon-dated to the seventh century, the first decades of Islam. Sunni and Shia Muslims recite from the same mushaf. The great majority of Shia scholars – in earlier centuries, for example, ash-Sharif al-Murtada and Shaykh at-Tusi, and in modern times Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei – affirm, like Sunni scholars, that the Quran we hold is complete and unaltered.

7Preservation, memorisation and the huffaz

Allah says: "Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will be its guardian" Quran 15:9. Muslims see this promise fulfilled in a special way: not only in manuscripts but in hearts. Since the time of the Prophet ﷺ, in every generation, people have memorised the entire Quran. Someone who has done so is called a hafiz (plural huffaz). Allah says: "And We have certainly made the Quran easy to remember. So is there anyone who will be mindful?" Quran 54:17.

In mosques, homes and Quran schools, children often begin with the short surahs of the last juz' and work their way forward. In West Africa and Mauritania, students write the verses on wooden tablets (lawh), recite them until they know them by heart, then wash the tablet and write the next portion. In South Asia, many schools follow a daily rhythm of a new lesson, recent revision and older revision. Everywhere the principle is the same: a little every day, much repetition, and a teacher who listens.

Whoever completes memorisation and recitation with a qualified teacher may receive an ijazah, a licence to teach, with a chain of teachers (sanad) that reaches back, name by name, to the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ said: "It will be said to the companion of the Quran: recite and rise, and recite slowly as you used to recite in the world, for your rank will be at the last verse you recite" (Abu Dawud and at-Tirmidhi). And he reminded that what is memorised needs care: "Keep refreshing the Quran, for it slips away faster than camels from their tethers" (al-Bukhari and Muslim).

Our Shams Method is built on this wisdom: small portions, frequent repetition, listening before reading. You will find more in the guide How to memorise the Quran and in the chapter on the path of a reciter.

8The readings – qira'at

The Prophet ﷺ said: "This Quran has been revealed in seven modes (ahruf), so recite whatever is easy for you of it" (al-Bukhari and Muslim). He said this when Umar heard Hisham ibn Hakim recite Surah al-Furqan differently from the way he had learned it, and the Prophet ﷺ confirmed both. Scholars have discussed at length what exactly the seven ahruf are; most agree that they are not the same as the later "seven readings".

The readings recited today go back to famous teachers of the early centuries. In the tenth century, the Baghdad scholar Ibn Mujahid (d. 936) gathered seven of them; later scholars, above all Ibn al-Jazari (d. 1429), confirmed ten. Each reader has two principal transmitters (rawi), so one speaks of twenty transmissions. The seven are Nafi' (Madinah), Ibn Kathir (Makkah; not to be confused with the later exegete), Abu 'Amr (Basra), Ibn 'Amir (Damascus), and 'Asim, Hamzah and al-Kisa'i (Kufa); Abu Ja'far, Ya'qub and Khalaf complete the ten. A reading is accepted only if it has a reliable chain back to the Prophet ﷺ, agrees with the script of the Uthmanic copies and agrees with Arabic grammar.

The most widespread today is the transmission of Hafs 'an 'Asim, which most printed copies follow, as do the recitations on our platform. In North and West Africa, many communities read according to Warsh 'an Nafi', in Libya and parts of Tunisia according to Qalun 'an Nafi', and in parts of Sudan and West Africa according to ad-Duri 'an Abi 'Amr. The differences are small: in al-Fatiha, for instance, Hafs reads Maaliki yawmi d-din, "Master of the Day of Judgement", while Warsh reads Maliki, "King of the Day of Judgement" – both are true of Allah. For believers, the readings are not contradictions but a richness within the same text.

9The language of the Quran and its inimitability

The Quran was revealed among a people who prized eloquence above almost everything; poets were the celebrities of Arabia. Yet the Quran is neither poetry nor ordinary prose: "It is not the word of a poet" Quran 69:41. Its verses rhyme and flow but follow no fixed metre; they move between narrative, address, prayer and argument, often within a few lines.

The Quran challenges those who doubt its origin to produce something like it: "And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our servant, then produce a surah like it" Quran 2:23, and: "If mankind and the jinn gathered together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce the like of it, even if they were to help one another" Quran 17:88. From this challenge grew the teaching of i'jaz, the inimitability of the Quran. Scholars such as al-Baqillani and Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani in the eleventh century studied it above all in the Quran's composition (nazm) – the way words, sounds and meanings are woven together.

We prefer to speak of this modestly. Many readers experience the Quran's power less as a proof than as an encounter: "Allah has sent down the best of speech, a Book consistent and oft-repeated, at which the skins of those who fear their Lord shiver" Quran 39:23. Jubayr ibn Mut'im, who was not yet Muslim, heard the Prophet ﷺ recite Surah at-Tur in the sunset prayer. When he reached the verse "Or were they created by nothing, or were they the creators?" Quran 52:35, Jubayr later said, his heart almost flew (al-Bukhari). Some modern writers point to verses that seem to touch on natural phenomena; many scholars urge caution here, because the Quran is first of all a book of guidance, not a science textbook, and its truth does not depend on the theories of any age.

10Translations of the meanings

The Quran was revealed in Arabic, and its sound, its rhythm and its depth of meaning are inseparable from it. That is why translations are called translations of the meanings: they are a precious aid to understanding, but they are not the Quran itself. Every translation has to choose where the Arabic carries several meanings at once – which is why it is worth comparing two translations and reading an explanation alongside. The prayer is performed in Arabic, and many Muslims whose mother tongue is not Arabic learn at least the surahs they recite in prayer.

Well-known English translations include those of Saheeh International, Marmaduke Pickthall, Abdullah Yusuf Ali and M. A. S. Abdel Haleem. On our platform you read the Saheeh International translation in English and the translation by Frank Bubenheim and Nadeem Elyas in German. If you would like to go deeper into the language itself, start with our Arabic course.

11Tajweed – reciting beautifully and correctly

Allah says: "And recite the Quran with measured recitation" Quran 73:4. This slow, clear recitation is called tartil, and the rules for it are called tajweed: the correct articulation of every letter, lengthening, nasalisation and pauses. Tajweed is not an end in itself; it is an expression of respect for the word of Allah. And nobody has to start perfectly. The Prophet ﷺ said: "The one who is skilled in the Quran will be with the noble and righteous scribes, and the one who recites it and stumbles over it, finding it difficult, will have a double reward" (al-Bukhari and Muslim). You can learn the rules step by step in our tajweed course.

12Etiquette with the Quran

Muslims treat the mushaf, the printed copy of the Quran, with deep reverence. Most scholars hold that one should touch it only in a state of ritual purity (wudu), citing among other evidence Quran 56:79. It is placed somewhere clean and raised; recitation begins by seeking refuge with Allah from Satan Quran 16:98 and with the basmala; and when the Quran is recited, one listens attentively Quran 7:204. Anyone who is not in a state of wudu, or who reads the Quran on a phone, can of course still listen, reflect and learn.

Among the beautiful customs is reciting with a lovely voice. The Prophet ﷺ said: "Beautify the Quran with your voices" (Abu Dawud and an-Nasa'i), and: "He is not of us who does not recite the Quran melodiously" (al-Bukhari). Understanding matters more than speed: when Abdullah ibn Amr wanted to complete the Quran in a very short time, the Prophet ﷺ told him: "Whoever reads the Quran in less than three days does not understand it" (Abu Dawud and at-Tirmidhi). And Allah asks: "Do they not reflect upon the Quran, or are there locks upon their hearts?" Quran 47:24.

13Reading with understanding – tafsir

The Prophet ﷺ was the first to explain the Quran Quran 16:44, followed by his Companions. From this grew the science of tafsir, Quranic exegesis. Classical exegetes such as Ibn Kathir describe an order of sources: explain the Quran first by the Quran itself, then by the Sunnah, then by the statements of the Companions and their students, and by the Arabic language. The Quran itself says that some of its verses are clear and precise and form "the foundation of the Book", while others are open to more than one meaning Quran 3:7 – the clear verses help to understand the others.

Among the great works are:

• the tafsir of at-Tabari (d. 923), Jami' al-Bayan, which carefully gathers the statements of the earliest generations;
• the tafsir of al-Qurtubi (d. 1273), al-Jami' li-Ahkam al-Qur'an, especially rich in legal and linguistic explanation;
• the tafsir of Ibn Kathir (d. 1373), which explains the Quran above all through the Quran itself and through hadith, and remains very widely read today;
• the tafsir of as-Sa'di (d. 1956), Taysir al-Karim ar-Rahman, concise, clear and much loved by beginners;
• for Shia readers, the classical Majma' al-Bayan by at-Tabrisi (d. 1153) and al-Mizan by Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i (d. 1981), which explains the Quran above all through the Quran itself.

On our platform you can read explanations for every verse, always with the source named – in English, for example, Ibn Kathir in abridged form, Ma'arif al-Qur'an and Tazkirul Quran. A few habits help you understand:

1. 1Start small. One passage with understanding is better than ten pages without.
2. 2Read the verse first, then the translation, then the tafsir.
3. 3Read in context. Look at the verses before and after, at the surah as a whole, and at whether it is Makki or Madani. Whoever quotes only "Do not approach prayer" and leaves out the rest of Quran 4:43 twists its meaning.
4. 4Watch for repetition. What the Quran says briefly in one place, it often explains more fully in another.
5. 5Ask. If questions arise, especially about rulings, turn to a qualified scholar or a study circle.
6. 6Take one thing with you. What does this verse teach you about Allah, about people, about your own life – and what will you act on today?

You will find more in our guide Understanding the Quran – tafsir.

14The main themes

The Quran is not a textbook with chapters sorted by subject. It weaves its themes together in a living way:

• the oneness of Allah and His beautiful names,
• the signs of Allah in creation – the heavens, the earth, rain, plants, the human being itself,
• the stories of the prophets, from Adam to Jesus, as lessons and as comfort,
• life after death, accountability and mercy,
• worship, morals, family, justice and living together.

15The virtues of reciting and learning

The Prophet ﷺ said: "The best of you are those who learn the Quran and teach it" (al-Bukhari). And he said: "Read the Quran, for it will come on the Day of Resurrection as an intercessor for its companions" (Muslim). The "companions of the Quran" are those who read it regularly and live by it – a beautiful thought for anyone who starts today with a single verse.

He compared the believer who recites the Quran to a citron, whose scent is pleasant and whose taste is pleasant (al-Bukhari and Muslim). He called al-Fatiha the greatest surah of the Quran (al-Bukhari), and the Verse of the Throne Quran 2:255 the greatest verse (Muslim). You can listen to it here.

16The Quran in the Emirates

Here in the Emirates, the Quran has a firm place in daily and public life. The Dubai International Holy Quran Award has been held since 1997 and every year brings together young reciters from many countries. Across all the emirates there are Quran memorisation centres where children and adults, Emiratis and residents alike, learn with experienced teachers. In 2019 the Quranic Park opened in Al Khawaneej in Dubai, a park that brings plants and stories from the Quran to life for families. And at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, visitors from all over the world hear the Quran recited.

17How to start with us

You do not have to master everything at once. Begin with what fits today:

1. 1Open the Quran and listen verse by verse, with translation and tafsir. The word being recited is highlighted as you go.
2. 2Memorise short surahs with the Shams Method.
3. 3Improve your pronunciation in the tajweed course and learn the language in the Arabic course.
4. 4Work through all 114 surahs step by step in the Academy.
5. 5Follow the 365-day plan to read a small portion every day, or use the Khatm planner to spread a complete reading of the Quran over fixed daily portions.

One verse a day, read with the heart, is worth more than a grand resolution that never begins.