50 Fun Facts About Quran

How many chapters does the Quran contain?

Each chapter is a surah; 86 are classed as Meccan and 28 as Medinan.

What does the Arabic word "Quran" literally mean?

It is a verbal noun of qara'a, "he read" or "he recited"; al-kitab, "the Book", is another name for it.

What is the Arabic word for an individual verse of the Quran?

The word also means "sign"; the chapters are surahs and the thirty reading sections are juz'.

Through which angel do Muslims believe the Quran was revealed?

Jibril in Arabic; the revelations came incrementally over about 23 years.

Over roughly how many years was the Quran revealed?

Revelation began when Muhammad was 40 and ended in 632, the year of his death.

In which year is the first revelation traditionally dated?

It came in the Cave of Hira on the Night of Power, during the month of Ramadan.

Where did Muhammad receive the first revelation?

The grotto sits on Jabal al-Nour, the Mountain of Light, near Mecca; 1,750 steps lead to the top.

Which chapter is traditionally believed to contain the first revealed verses?

Chapter 96 opens with the command "Read!"; only its first five verses came in the cave.

What command did the angel give Muhammad at the first revelation?

The Arabic iqra can also be rendered "Recite!", which is the root of the word Quran itself.

What is the Night of Power called in Arabic?

Surah al-Qadr is named after it; many Muslims look for it on the odd nights in the last ten days of Ramadan.

When in Ramadan do Sunni Muslims expect the Night of Power?

That means the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th or 29th; Muhammad spent those days in spiritual retreat.

Ramadan is which month of the Islamic calendar?

The lunar month of fasting also involves study of the Quran, which many recite in full during tarawih prayers.

Which is the longest chapter of the Quran?

"The Cow" has 286 verses and includes the Throne Verse and the longest single verse, the Verse of Loan.

How many verses are in the Quran's second chapter?

It opens with the mysterious letters alif, lam, mim and was revealed over about ten years in Medina.

What does the title of the Quran's second chapter mean?

The Quran also has chapters named for the bee, the ant, the spider and the elephant.

Which is the shortest chapter of the Quran?

Chapter 108, "Abundance", has just three verses, and the word kawthar appears nowhere else in the Quran.

Which chapter opens the Quran?

"The Opening" has seven verses and is recited in every unit of the daily prayers.

How many verses does the opening chapter have?

Its name comes from the root f-t-h, meaning to open, and it is widely held to be the first complete surah revealed.

What is Ayat al-Kursi, passage 2:255, known as in English?

Ayat al-Kursi is verse 255 of Al-Baqarah and is widely memorised and displayed in homes.

Al-Ikhlas, chapter 112, is also known by what name?

Its first three verses appear on a coin struck by Abd al-Malik in 697, among the oldest physical evidence of the text.

Which chapter is named after the mother of Jesus?

Chapter 19 recounts the events leading to the birth of Jesus; Mary is mentioned more in the Quran than in the New Testament.

Which prophet is mentioned by name most often in the Quran?

Musa appears 136 times, and his life is narrated at greater length than any other prophet's.

How many prophets and messengers are named in the Quran?

The list runs from Adam to Muhammad, though the text says many more were sent to other nations.

Which prophet's whole life story is told in a single chapter, in order?

Chapter 12, Yusuf, runs 111 verses; other prophets' stories are scattered across many surahs.

Chapter 18, Al-Kahf, shares a story with which Christian legend?

"The Cave" also tells of Moses and Khidr and of Dhul-Qarnayn's wall against Gog and Magog.

What is the phrase "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful" called?

It precedes every chapter except one, and it opens the constitutions of many Muslim-majority countries.

Which is the only chapter not preceded by "In the name of God..."?

Al-Qurtubi reported that Gabriel did not include it when revealing the ninth surah.

What share of the Quran is classed as Meccan revelation?

Eighty-six surahs are Meccan and 28 Medinan, though the labels refer to timing relative to the Hijrah, not place.

Which caliph first ordered the Quran compiled after Muhammad's death?

Companions who had memorised or written down parts gathered it; the copy later passed to Muhammad's widow Hafsa.

Which caliph established the standard text known as the Uthmanic codex?

Uthman ruled from 644 to 656 and sent copies of the standardised text to the main cities.

Who was Muhammad's personal scribe and chief recorder of the Quranic text?

He later headed the committee that prepared Uthman's standard copy.

Who kept the first compiled copy of the Quran until Uthman requested it?

Muhammad's widow and the daughter of the second caliph held the Mushaf after Abu Bakr's death.

What is a person who has memorised the entire Quran called?

The female form is hafiza; the text runs to 6,236 verses and about 77,797 words.

Roughly how many verses does the Quran contain?

That is spread across 114 chapters and around 77,797 words of Classical Arabic.

What is the special prosody used for reciting the Quran called?

The word comes from a verb meaning to make something excellent.

What is a written commentary explaining the Quran called?

Its author is a mufassir; the Quran's allusive style makes such commentary a major Islamic science.

Into how many parts, or juz', is the Quran divided for reading?

One a night lets worshippers finish the whole book during the thirty nights of Ramadan.

Which juz' is the most commonly memorised?

The 30th part holds chapters 78 to 114, most of the Quran's shortest surahs.

In which language must the Quran be recited during prayers?

Translations are used for study, but the liturgical text is always the Arabic.

What is the term for a physical written copy of the Quran?

The Quran itself is the recited revelation; the bound codex is the mushaf.

Who is said to have made the first translation of any part of the Quran?

He rendered Al-Fatiha into Persian in the seventh century; full Persian translations came between the 10th and 12th centuries.

Robert of Ketton's 1143 translation was the first into which Western language?

He made it for Peter the Venerable under the hostile title Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete.

Which English university holds a Quran manuscript radiocarbon-dated to 568–645 CE?

The two leaves are part of the Mingana Collection and carry parts of surahs 18, 19 and 20.

In which city were 12,000 early Quran fragments found in a mosque in 1972?

The Yemeni find included palimpsests, pages washed clean and reused.

The Blue Quran is famous for gold lettering on parchment dyed what colour?

It likely dates from the 8th to 10th centuries and originally held some 600 folios in a landscape format.

Which city's 1924 printing of the Quran is the main version in use today?

It follows the reading of Hafs from Asim; North Africa outside Egypt mostly uses the Warsh reading.

How many times does the word qur'an appear in the Quran itself?

It takes several meanings, from the act of reciting to a single recited passage.

In which month of the Islamic calendar was the final verse revealed, in 632?

The 18th of the pilgrimage month in year 10 AH corresponds to roughly February or March 632.

Which Umayyad caliph struck a coin bearing verses of Al-Ikhlas in 697 AD?

The Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik issued it, making it some of the earliest dated physical evidence of the text.

Besides the Quran, which earlier scriptures does Islam hold were revealed by God?

Muslims regard the Quran as the culmination of messages that began with Adam.