What Is the Quran?

How the Quran was revealed

According to Muslim tradition, the revelation began when the Prophet was about forty years old and had gone to reflect alone in a cave called Hira, on a mountain near Makkah. During the month of Ramadan, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) came to him with the first verses, which open with the command to read (Quran 96:1–5).

The Quran was not revealed all at once. It came in passages over about twenty-three years, often in response to events and questions the early Muslim community faced. Some passages were revealed in Makkah and others after the Prophet moved to Madinah. Scholars often classify chapters as Makkan or Madinan for this reason.

Broadly speaking, the Makkan passages focus on faith in God, the stories of earlier prophets and the life to come. The Madinan passages, revealed when a Muslim community had formed, also include more guidance on worship, family life and social affairs.

How the book is arranged

The Quran is divided into 114 chapters, each called a surah. The surahs vary greatly in length, from just three short verses to several hundred. Each verse is called an ayah, a word that also means a sign.

The surahs are not arranged in the order they were revealed. After a short opening chapter, al-Fatihah, they are broadly arranged from longer to shorter. The longest surah, al-Baqarah (The Cow), comes second, and many of the shortest are found at the end.

• 114 surahs (chapters), each with its own name.
• Every surah except one begins with "In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate".
• The text is often divided into 30 roughly equal parts, called juz', to help people read it over a month.
• Al-Fatihah, the opening chapter, is recited in every unit of the daily prayer.

What the Quran talks about

Readers who open the Quran for the first time are often surprised by how its themes interweave. A single surah may move from praise of God to a story from the past, then to guidance for daily life and a reminder of the hereafter. This style keeps returning the reader to its central message.

Some of the main themes that run through the whole book are:

• The oneness of God, His mercy and His power as Creator.
• The stories of earlier prophets, such as Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus.
• Signs of God in nature, from the stars to rain and growing plants.
• Guidance on worship, honesty, justice, family and care for the poor.
• The Day of Judgement and the life to come.

Preserved by memory and by writing

From the beginning, the Quran was preserved in two ways at once. Many of the Prophet's companions memorised the verses as they were revealed, and scribes wrote them down on whatever materials were available.

After the Prophet's death, the early leaders of the community gathered the written material into a single collected copy. Under the third caliph, Uthman, standard copies were prepared and sent to major cities, so that everyone would recite from the same text.

Memorisation remains central today. Millions of Muslims around the world, including many children, have memorised the entire Quran. Such a person is called a hafiz. Sunni and Shi'a Muslims recite and honour the same Quran.

Why Muslims treat it with care

Because Muslims believe the Quran is God's speech, they handle printed copies of the Arabic text with great respect. Many people keep it in a high, clean place, and most scholars teach that one should be in a state of wudu (ritual washing) before touching the Arabic text.

Translations are valued and widely used, but Muslims regard them as explanations of the meaning rather than the Quran itself. Only the Arabic is recited in the formal prayer. This is one reason why many Muslims who do not speak Arabic still learn to read the Quranic script.

Above all, the Quran is meant to be lived. Muslims turn to it for guidance in worship, ethics, family life and hardship. It describes itself as guidance for those who are mindful of God, and for believers it is a lifelong companion rather than a book to be read once and put away.