Qur'an

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Qur'an

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The seven verses of Al-Fatiha, the first sura of the Qur'an.

The Qur’an (English pronunciation: /kɒˈrɑːn/ kor-AHN; Arabic: ‫ القرآن‬al-qur’ān, IPA: [qurˈʔaːn],

literally “the recitation”) is the religious text of Islam,[1] also sometimes transliterated as
Quran, Kuran, Koran, Qur’ān, Coran or al-Qur’ān. It is widely regarded as the finest
piece of literature in the Arabic language.[2][3][4] Muslims hold that the Qur’an is the verbal
divine guidance and moral direction for mankind.[5] Muslims also consider the original Arabic
verbal text to be the final revelation of God.[6][7][8][9]

Muslims believe that the Qur’an was repeatedly revealed from Allah to Muhammad verbally
through the angel Jibrīl (Gabriel) over a period of approximately twenty-three years,
beginning in 610 CE, when he was forty, and concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death.[6][10]
[11]
Followers of Islam further believe that the Qur’an was memorized, recited and written
down by Muhammad's companions after every revelation dictated by Muhammad. Most of
Muhammad's tens of thousands of companions, called Sahabas, learned the Qur’an by heart,
repeatedly recited in front of Muhammad for his approval or the approval of other Sahabas.
Muslim tradition agrees that although the Qur’an was authentically memorized completely by
tens of thousands verbally, the Qur’an was still established textually into a single book form
shortly after Muhammad's death by order of the first Caliph Abu Bakr suggested by his future
successor Umar. Hafsa, Muhammad's widow and Umar's daughter, was entrusted with that
Quran text after the second Caliph Umar died. When Uthman, the third Caliph, started
noticing slight differences in the Arabic dialect; he requested Hafsa to allow him to use the
Qur’an text in her possession to be set as the standard dialect, the Quraish dialect aka Fus'ha
(Modern Standard Arabic). Before returning that Qur'an text to Hafsa; Uthman immediately
made several thousands of copies of Abu Bakar's Qur’anic compilation and ordered all other
texts to be burned. This process of formalization of the orally transmitted text to Abu Bakar's
Qur'anic text is known as the "Uthmanic recension".[12] The present form of the Qur’an text is
accepted by most scholars as the original version compiled by Abu Bakr.[12][13]

Vocal

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Muslims regard the Qur’an as the main miracle of Muhammad, as proof of his prophethood,
[14]
and as the culmination of a series of divine messages. These started, according to Islamic
belief, with the messages revealed to Adam, regarded in Islam as the first prophet, and
continued with the Suhuf Ibrahim (Scrolls of Abraham),[15] the Tawrat (Torah or Pentateuch)
of Moses,[16][17] the Zabur (Tehillim or Book of Psalms) of David,[18][19] and the Injil (Gospel)
of Jesus.[20][21][22] The Qur'an assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in Jewish
and Christian scriptures, summarizing some, dwelling at length on others, and, in some cases,
presenting alternative accounts and interpretations of events.[23][24][25] The Qur'an describes
itself as a book of guidance, sometimes offering detailed accounts of specific historical
events, and often emphasizing the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence.
[26][27]

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