The Qur’an

The Qur’an (قرآن, “recitation”) contains 114 chapters, called surahs (سورة, chapter), made up of verses called ayahs (آية, “sign”). Muslims hold it to be the speech of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in Arabic over some twenty-three years, preserved in writing and in the memory of reciters in every generation.

How the text is arranged

The surahs are set out broadly from longest to shortest, which is not the order of revelation. Each is named from a word or theme within it, so The Cow takes its name from a passage about a heifer, and The Elephant from the year of the attack on Makkah. Every surah except the ninth opens with the basmalah (بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم, in the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful). Twenty-nine begin with detached letters, the muqaṭṭaʿāt (مقطعات, the abbreviated letters), whose meaning remains unsettled.

Each surah is classed as Makkan or Madinan according to whether it was revealed before or after the migration of 622 CE. Eighty-six are Makkan and twenty-eight Madinan. For reading and recitation the text is also divided into thirty parts of roughly equal length, called juzʾ (جزء, part).

The verse totals below follow the Kufan count, the most widely used today, which gives 6,236 verses in all. Other schools of counting divide a few verses differently and reach slightly different totals.

The 114 surahs

#	Arabic	Name	Meaning	Verses	Revealed
1	الفاتحة	Al-Fatihah	The Opening	7	Makkah
2	البقرة	Al-Baqarah	The Cow	286	Madinah
3	آل عمران	Al Imran	The Family of Imran	200	Madinah
4	النساء	An-Nisa	The Women	176	Madinah
5	المائدة	Al-Ma’idah	The Table Spread	120	Madinah
6	الأنعام	Al-An’am	The Cattle	165	Makkah
7	الأعراف	Al-A’raf	The Heights	206	Makkah
8	الأنفال	Al-Anfal	The Spoils of War	75	Madinah
9	التوبة	At-Tawbah	The Repentance	129	Madinah
10	يونس	Yunus	Jonah	109	Makkah
11	هود	Hud	Hud	123	Makkah
12	يوسف	Yusuf	Joseph	111	Makkah
13	الرعد	Ar-Ra’d	The Thunder	43	Madinah
14	إبراهيم	Ibrahim	Abraham	52	Makkah
15	الحجر	Al-Hijr	The Rocky Tract	99	Makkah
16	النحل	An-Nahl	The Bees	128	Makkah
17	الإسراء	Al-Isra	The Night Journey	111	Makkah
18	الكهف	Al-Kahf	The Cave	110	Makkah
19	مريم	Maryam	Mary	98	Makkah
20	طه	Ta-Ha	Ta Ha	135	Makkah
21	الأنبياء	Al-Anbiya	The Prophets	112	Makkah
22	الحج	Al-Hajj	The Pilgrimage	78	Madinah
23	المؤمنون	Al-Mu’minun	The Believers	118	Makkah
24	النور	An-Nur	The Light	64	Madinah
25	الفرقان	Al-Furqan	The Criterion	77	Makkah
26	الشعراء	Ash-Shu’ara	The Poets	227	Makkah
27	النمل	An-Naml	The Ant	93	Makkah
28	القصص	Al-Qasas	The Stories	88	Makkah
29	العنكبوت	Al-Ankabut	The Spider	69	Makkah
30	الروم	Ar-Rum	The Romans	60	Makkah
31	لقمان	Luqman	Luqman	34	Makkah
32	السجدة	As-Sajdah	The Prostration	30	Makkah
33	الأحزاب	Al-Ahzab	The Confederates	73	Madinah
34	سبأ	Saba	Sheba	54	Makkah
35	فاطر	Fatir	The Originator	45	Makkah
36	يس	Ya-Sin	Ya Sin	83	Makkah
37	الصافات	As-Saffat	Those Ranged in Ranks	182	Makkah
38	ص	Sad	Sad	88	Makkah
39	الزمر	Az-Zumar	The Crowds	75	Makkah
40	غافر	Ghafir	The Forgiver	85	Makkah
41	فصلت	Fussilat	Explained in Detail	54	Makkah
42	الشورى	Ash-Shura	The Consultation	53	Makkah
43	الزخرف	Az-Zukhruf	The Ornaments of Gold	89	Makkah
44	الدخان	Ad-Dukhan	The Smoke	59	Makkah
45	الجاثية	Al-Jathiyah	The Kneeling	37	Makkah
46	الأحقاف	Al-Ahqaf	The Sand Dunes	35	Makkah
47	محمد	Muhammad	Muhammad	38	Madinah
48	الفتح	Al-Fath	The Victory	29	Madinah
49	الحجرات	Al-Hujurat	The Private Apartments	18	Madinah
50	ق	Qaf	Qaf	45	Makkah
51	الذاريات	Adh-Dhariyat	The Winnowing Winds	60	Makkah
52	الطور	At-Tur	The Mount	49	Makkah
53	النجم	An-Najm	The Star	62	Makkah
54	القمر	Al-Qamar	The Moon	55	Makkah
55	الرحمن	Ar-Rahman	The Most Merciful	78	Madinah
56	الواقعة	Al-Waqi’ah	The Inevitable	96	Makkah
57	الحديد	Al-Hadid	Iron	29	Madinah
58	المجادلة	Al-Mujadilah	The Pleading Woman	22	Madinah
59	الحشر	Al-Hashr	The Gathering	24	Madinah
60	الممتحنة	Al-Mumtahanah	She Who Is Examined	13	Madinah
61	الصف	As-Saff	The Ranks	14	Madinah
62	الجمعة	Al-Jumu’ah	Friday	11	Madinah
63	المنافقون	Al-Munafiqun	The Hypocrites	11	Madinah
64	التغابن	At-Taghabun	Mutual Loss and Gain	18	Madinah
65	الطلاق	At-Talaq	Divorce	12	Madinah
66	التحريم	At-Tahrim	The Prohibition	12	Madinah
67	الملك	Al-Mulk	The Sovereignty	30	Makkah
68	القلم	Al-Qalam	The Pen	52	Makkah
69	الحاقة	Al-Haqqah	The Reality	52	Makkah
70	المعارج	Al-Ma’arij	The Ascending Stairways	44	Makkah
71	نوح	Nuh	Noah	28	Makkah
72	الجن	Al-Jinn	The Jinn	28	Makkah
73	المزمل	Al-Muzzammil	The Enshrouded One	20	Makkah
74	المدثر	Al-Muddaththir	The Cloaked One	56	Makkah
75	القيامة	Al-Qiyamah	The Resurrection	40	Makkah
76	الإنسان	Al-Insan	Man	31	Madinah
77	المرسلات	Al-Mursalat	Those Sent Forth	50	Makkah
78	النبأ	An-Naba	The Tidings	40	Makkah
79	النازعات	An-Nazi’at	Those Who Drag Forth	46	Makkah
80	عبس	Abasa	He Frowned	42	Makkah
81	التكوير	At-Takwir	The Overthrowing	29	Makkah
82	الإنفطار	Al-Infitar	The Cleaving Asunder	19	Makkah
83	المطففين	Al-Mutaffifin	Those Who Give Short Measure	36	Makkah
84	الإنشقاق	Al-Inshiqaq	The Splitting Asunder	25	Makkah
85	البروج	Al-Buruj	The Constellations	22	Makkah
86	الطارق	At-Tariq	The Night Comer	17	Makkah
87	الأعلى	Al-A’la	The Most High	19	Makkah
88	الغاشية	Al-Ghashiyah	The Overwhelming	26	Makkah
89	الفجر	Al-Fajr	The Dawn	30	Makkah
90	البلد	Al-Balad	The City	20	Makkah
91	الشمس	Ash-Shams	The Sun	15	Makkah
92	الليل	Al-Layl	The Night	21	Makkah
93	الضحى	Ad-Duha	The Morning Hours	11	Makkah
94	الشرح	Ash-Sharh	The Relief	8	Makkah
95	التين	At-Tin	The Fig	8	Makkah
96	العلق	Al-Alaq	The Clinging Clot	19	Makkah
97	القدر	Al-Qadr	The Night of Decree	5	Makkah
98	البينة	Al-Bayyinah	The Clear Evidence	8	Madinah
99	الزلزلة	Az-Zalzalah	The Earthquake	8	Madinah
100	العاديات	Al-Adiyat	The Chargers	11	Makkah
101	القارعة	Al-Qari’ah	The Striking Hour	11	Makkah
102	التكاثر	At-Takathur	Rivalry in Worldly Increase	8	Makkah
103	العصر	Al-Asr	The Declining Day	3	Makkah
104	الهمزة	Al-Humazah	The Slanderer	9	Makkah
105	الفيل	Al-Fil	The Elephant	5	Makkah
106	قريش	Quraysh	Quraysh	4	Makkah
107	الماعون	Al-Ma’un	Small Kindnesses	7	Makkah
108	الكوثر	Al-Kawthar	Abundance	3	Makkah
109	الكافرون	Al-Kafirun	The Disbelievers	6	Makkah
110	النصر	An-Nasr	The Divine Support	3	Madinah
111	المسد	Al-Masad	The Palm Fibre	5	Makkah
112	الإخلاص	Al-Ikhlas	Sincerity of Faith	4	Makkah
113	الفلق	Al-Falaq	The Daybreak	5	Makkah
114	الناس	An-Nas	Mankind	6	Makkah

Reading further

The longest surah, The Cow, has 286 verses; the shortest have three. The first revelation, according to the standard account, was the opening of The Clinging Clot, and the last complete surah revealed was The Divine Support. On the way the text was gathered and copied, see Sacred texts. For its treatment of Abraham, see The Path of Abraham in the Qur’an.

Continue with The Tanakh or The Christian Bible.