Monday, March 28, 2011

The Holy Qur'an, Part 1



The Holy Quran is a compilation of the verbal revelations given to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) over a period of twenty two years. The Holy Quran is the Holy Book or the Scriptures of the Muslims. It lays down for them the law and commandments, codes for their social and moral behaviour, and contains a comprehensive religious philosophy. The language of the Quran is Arabic.

Besides its proper name, the Quran is also known by the following names:al Kitab The Book;al Furqan The Discriminant: al Dhikr The Exposition; al Bayan The Explanation; al Burhan The Argument; al Haqq The Truth; al Tanzil The Revelation; al Hikmat The Wisdom; al Huda The Guide; al Hukm The Judgment; al Mau'izah The Admonition; al Rahmat The Mercy; al-Noor The Light; al-Rooh The Word
Surahs And Verses

The Holy Quran is divided into 114 Surahs or Chapters and each Chapter consists of individual Ayaat or verses. There are in total 6,348 verses in the Holy Quran. The Surahs are of varying lengths, some consisting of a few lines while others run for many pages. Surah al Baqarah (Ch.2 ) is the longest Chapter comprising 287 verses while Surah al Kauthar( Ch. 108) is the shortest with only four verses including the tasmia.

The text of the Holy Quran has remained unchanged over the past 1400 years. The millions of copies of the Quran circulating in the world today are all identical down to a single letter. And this is not strange since God says in the Holy Quran that He Himself will guard this book:

"Surely it is We Who have revealed the Exposition, and surely it is We Who are its guardians" (15:10)

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