Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: David A. King, “Architecture and 

Astronomy: The Ventilators of Medieval Cairo and 

Their Secrets,” Journal of the American Oriental Society

104, no. 1 (1984): 97–133; ———, Astronomy in the 

Service of Islam (Aldershot, England: Varorium, 1993); 

Nuha N. N. Khoury, “The Mihrab: From Text to Form,” 

International Journal of Middle East Studies 30 (1998): 

1–27; F. E. Peters, Muhammad and the Origins of Islam

(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 

207–209.

qiyas

  See 

fiqh

.

al-Quds

  See j

erusalem

.

al-Quds

  

569  J

---

Quran

 

(Arabic: recitation, reading)

The Quran is the sacred scripture of i

slam

. Mus-

lims believe it contains the infallible word of 

God as revealed to m

Uhammad

 the Prophet in the 

Arabic language during the latter part of his life, 

between the years 610 and 632 in the Western 

calendar. They also hold that it is the last of a 

sequence of revealed books delivered to human-

kind through history, but, because previous scrip-

tures, particularly the t

orah

 and g

ospel

, had 

become corrupted, it is the most perfect of all rev-

elations. Through recitation, worship, exegesis, 

and the art of 

calligraphy

, Muslims have made it 

part of daily life wherever they are.

The Quran is about the same length as the 

Christian New Testament. It consists of 114 

chapters called suras. These chapters are orga-

nized roughly by length, from longest to shortest, 

excepting the opening one, the F

atiha

, which 

is a short prayer asking for God’s guidance and 

blessing. There is no logical or narrative connec-

tion between one chapter and the next, which 

makes it a challenge for beginners to read without 

guidance. The Quran’s structure contrasts with 

that of the first books of the Hebrew Bible and 

the New Testament’s Gospels and Book of Acts, 

which follow a narrative sequence (from cre-

ation to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple 

and the return from exile in the former, and the 

ministries of Jesus and his disciples in the latter). 

Corresponding to beginning with the Fatiha, the 

Quran ends with two short chapters known as the 

“protecting” ones (Q 113 and 114), because they 

ask God’s protection from evil.

To facilitate memorization and recitation of the 

sacred text, Islamic tradition has given each of the 

Quran’s chapters a distinctive title. In a few cases 

the title assigned is indicative of the chapter’s con-

tent, such as the sura of Yusuf (Q 12), which tells 

the story of the biblical J

oseph

, the son of Jacob. 

Likewise for the chapters named for m

ary

 (Q 19) 

and Noah (Q 71), which include versions of the 

Bible stories about these figures, as well as the sura 

of The Cave (Q 18), which contains a story about 

a group of youths who escape persecution for their 

beliefs by hiding in a cave. A number of chapters 

in the latter part of the Quran have names that 

identify them with events associated with the end 

of the world and J

Udgment

 d

ay

, such as The Res-

urrection (Q 75), The Tidings (Q 78), The Fold-

ing Up (Q 81), Splitting Apart (Q 82), and The 

Earthquake (Q 99). The names of other chapters 

are derived from the mysterious letters with which 

some of them begin, such as Q 9 Qaf, Q 20 Ta-Ha, 

and Q 36 Ya-Sin. Most chapters, including many of 

those already mentioned, obtain their titles from a 

unique word or name that occurs in them. Thus, Q 

2 is called al-Baqara (The Cow), a word that occurs 

only in this chapter (verses 67–69, 71). Sura 16 

is named The Bee (nahl) after the bee mentioned 

only in verse 68, and sura 96 is entitled The Blood 

Clot (alaq) because this word occurs in verse 2 and 

nowhere else in the Quran.

Each chapter in the Quran is divided into 

verses (sing. 

aya

). The Quran has more than 6,200 

Page from an Arabic Quran manuscript showing the 

first verses of sura 39, Maghribi script (North African 

Style) 13th–14th century.

  (Art Resource/The Metropolitan 

Museum of Art)

K  570  

Quran

---

verses that vary in length from one letter (Q 50:1) 

or word (Q 89:1) to several sentences (Q 5:40). 

All chapters but one (Q 9) begin with the 

basmala

,

a liturgical citation of God’s name, but only in the 

first sura is it counted as a verse. Other oft-cited 

verses in the Quran have also acquired their own 

names, such as the Throne Verse (Q 2:255), the 

Light Verse (Q 24:35), and the Sword Verse (Q 

9:5). Verses in the shorter chapters, many of them 

counted among the early revelations received by 

Muhammad, often share an end-rhyming pattern 

of prose known as saj, but in the longer chapters 

they usually do not rhyme. The physical divisions 

between verses are usually marked by circles or 

florets in Quran manuscripts, but in modern print 

editions they are numbered due to the influence of 

the modern Euro-American practice of numbering 

verses in print editions of the Bible.

Manuscript and print editions of the Quran 

also show other kinds of organization. One of 

these is to distinguish chapters revealed when 

Muhammad lived in m

ecca

 (610–622 

c

.

e

.) from 

those associated with the Medinan phase of his 

career (622–632 

c

.

e

). The classification of Meccan 

and Medinan suras can usually be found at the 

head of each sura, next to its title. However, Mus-

lim commentators and jurists have also recognized 

that a chapter classified as Medinan may contain 

Meccan verses in it, which suggests editing of the 

quranic text at some time after it was first com-

posed. To facilitate memorization and recitation 

of the entire Quran, Muslims have also divided it 

into 30 portions (sing. juz) of equal length, which 

they have further subdivided into two equal parts 

(sing.  hizb). The markings for these divisions 

can be found in Quran manuscripts and in most 

printed editions in Arabic.

Muslims believe that the Quran, the speech 

of God, provides guidance in all matters of 

Faith

, 

action, and the attainment of eternal salvation. In 

support of this belief, the Quran declares,

That is the book in which there is no doubt, 

a proper guide for those who fear God, who 

believe in the unseen, perform prayer, and 

disburse (in charity) what he has granted to 

them. (It is the book) of those who believe in 

what has been revealed to you (Muhammad), 

what was revealed before you, and who are 

certain about the hereafter. They are the ones 

who are guided rightly by their lord and who 

are prosperous. (Q 2:2–5)

The Quran’s leading theme is the declaration 

that there is only one all-powerful, all-knowing, 

and merciful God (a

llah

) who alone created the 

universe and governs all that is in it. Another 

theme is that as the creator of human beings, God 

makes his will known to them through signs and 

revelations delivered by prophets sent throughout 

history in order to guide them to salvation and 

warn them away from damnation. The Quran 

tells this religious history by referring to biblical 

stories about figures such as a

braham

, Joseph, 

m

oses

, d

avid

, and J

esUs

 and how their communi-

ties, called the p

eople

 

oF

 

the

 b

ook

, often rejected 

them. In doing so it placed Muhammad directly or 

indirectly among these former prophets and iden-

tified its message with theirs. Indeed, Muslims 

have regarded the Quran as the culmination of 

these earlier revelations, correcting the errors that 

people have introduced to them. In addition to 

biblical figures, the Quran also mentions Arabian 

prophets such as Salih (Q 7:73–79) and Shuayb 

(Q 7:84–93).

In the Quran the theme of salvation is linked 

to the idea that human beings are divided into 

believers and disbelievers, the righteous and the 

wrongdoers, who are all to be held accountable 

for their beliefs and actions at the end of the 

world on J

Udgment

  d

ay

, when all the dead will 

be resurrected. Those judged to be among the 

righteous will be rewarded with a blissful life in 

paradise, and sinners will suffer the agonies of 

the hell-fire. The Quran provides graphic descrip-

tions of the blessings and punishments that 

people will receive in the 

aFterliFe

, and, like the 

Bible, it also gives an accounting of the rewards