The Quran consists of 114 chapters of varying lengths, each known as a sura. Chapters are classified as Meccan or Medinan, depending on whether the verses were revealed before or after the migration of Muhammad to the city of Medina. Chapter titles are derived from a name or quality discussed in the text, or from the first letters or words of the sura. Generally, longer chapters appear earlier in the Quran, while the shorter ones appear later. The chapter arrangement is thus not connected to the sequence of revelation. Each chapter except the ninth starts with the Bismillah (??? ???? ?????? ??????) an Arabic phrase meaning “In the name of God”. There are, however, still 114 occurrences of the bismillah in the Quran, due to its presence in verse 27:30 as the opening of Solomon's letter to the Queen of Sheba.[67]
Each chapter is formed from several verses, known as ayat, which originally means a “sign” or “evidence” sent by God. The number of verses differs from chapter to chapter. An individual verse may be just a few letters or several lines. The total number of verses in the Quran is 6,236, however, the number varies if the bismillahs are counted separately.
In addition to and independent of the division into chapters, there are various ways of dividing the Quran into parts of approximately equal length for convenience in reading. The thirty juz' (plural ajza) can be used to read through the entire Quran in a month. Some of these parts are known by names and these names are the first few words by which the juz' starts. A juz' is sometimes further divided into two hizb (plural ahzab), and each hizb subdivided into four rub 'al-ahzab. The Quran is also divided into seven approximately equal parts, manzil (plural manazil), for it to be recited in a week.[1]
Muqatta'at or the Quranic initials are fourteen different letter combinations of 14 Arabic letters that appear in the beginning of 29 chapters of the Quran. The meanings of these initials remain unclear.
According to one estimate the Quran consists of 77430 words, 18994 unique words, 12183 stems, 3382 lemmas and 1685 roots.[68]
Categories: THE QURAN
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