Qur'an

An opened Quran dating back to 1683 in the museum of Çankırı, Turkey

The Qur'an (Arabic: القُرْآنٌ) is the central book of Islam. The Qur'an is considered by Muslims to be "The Word of Allah (God)". It is believed to have been revealed to the prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel.

For Muslims, the Qur'an is Allah's last revelation, the last in a chain of many revelations such as the Tawrat (Torah), the Zabur (Psalms), the Injeel (Gospel), the Scrolls of Abraham, and the Scrolls of Moses. It has been written and read in Arabic for more than 1,400 years, although the Qur'an has also been translated into other languages.

For Muslims, the Qur'an is used with the hadith to interpret Sharia (Islamic law). It supersedes all earlier revelations, such as the Torah and the Bible.

History

The first chapter of the Qur'an. This page is written in Arabic.

Muslims believe the Qur'an was first revealed to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel on the mountain of Hira in Mecca, and then over a period of twenty-three years until his death.

The Qur'an was not compiled while Muhammad was alive; it was memorised by oral transmission. After Muhammad died, his successor Abu Bakr, the first Rashidun caliph, compiled the Qur'an into a single book.

The elements, suras, verses, revelations

There are 30 parts in the Qur'an, which make 114 "suras" (chapters). Each sura has a different number of verses.

According to Muslim teachings,[source?] 87 of these suras revealed in Mecca, 27 of these suras revealed in Medina.

Verses

A Copy of The Quran at Museum Of Natural History NY

The verses of the Qur'an speak about many different topics. For example, the verses of chapter 80 (Abasa) speak about the evils of ableism. Or verse 2:15 speaks about the evils of being two-faced.

The first and last verse

The first verse revealed is:

(5) اقرَأ بِاسمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذي خَلَقَ (1) خَلَقَ الإِنسانَ مِن عَلَقٍ (2) اقرَأ وَرَبُّكَ الأَكرَمُ (3) الَّذي عَلَّمَ بِالقَلَمِ (4) عَلَّمَ الإِنسانَ ما لَم يَعلَم

Read (commencing) with the Name of Allah, Who has created (everything). He created man from a hanging mass (clinging) like a leech (in the mother’s womb). Read and your Lord is Most Generous, Who taught man (reading and writing) by the pen, Who (besides that) taught man (all that) which he did not know.96 : 1

The last verse revealed is:

Who believe! fulfil (all) obligations. Lawful unto you (for food) are all four-footed animals. Dead meat, blood, pig, any food which has been blessed by a (false) god other than Allah; an animal whose death resulted from strangulation, bludgeoning, arrows, falling, or bloodloss; an animal which was partly consumed by a wild animal or an animal which is sacrificed on a stone altar are forbidden. However, if faced with starvation, exceptions are allowed.

Earliest surviving fragments

The oldest fragments of the Koran have been found in the library of the University of Birmingham, in England. Radiocarbon dating showed with a probability of more than 95%, the parchment was from between 568 and 645 AD. So the manuscript is at least 1,370 years old. It is the earliest, or among the earliest, in existence.

References

  1. ↑ Qur'an, retrieved on 8 January 2009
  2. ↑ "Learn the Quran at Masjid al-Haram and Masjid al-Nabwi this Ramadan". Retrieved 2025-05-15.
  3. ↑ Jamilah, Jamilah. "Interrelatedness Of Legal Verses In Surah Al-baqarah." De Jure: Jurnal Hukum dan Syar'iah 1.2 (2009).
  4. ↑ This can also be found in the Quran (chapter 96:1 - 5 Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine)
  5. 1 2 Coughlan, Sean 2015. Oldest Koran fragments found in Birmingham University. BBC News Education.

Other websites