Page 48 - World Religions I - Islam

Study Section 6: The Qur’an - continued

6.1 Connect

There are 929 chapters in the Old Testament. There are 260 chapters in the New Testament. This gives
a total of 1,189 chapters. However, the original Scriptures were not divided into chapters or verses.
The system of chapters and verses is usually credited to Stephen Langton, who served as Archbishop of
Canterbury in the early 1200’s and their first use was in copies of the Latin Vulgate version. Today,
almost all modern Bibles use the same chapter and verse system.

The Qur’an is also divided into chapters and verses. In the Qur’an, a chapter is called a surah. When we cite the
location of a verse in the Bible, we normally cite the book, the chapter and then the verse. For example, we all
know John 3:16 (book, chapter, and verse). The Qur’an is one book, so all one does to cite a location of a verse is to
name the surah and then the verse. For example, Surah 21:19-20 talks about glorifying Allah. That is found in the
th
th
21st chapter (surah) of the Qur’an, the 19 and 20 verse. There are other religious writings in Islam that promote
strong religious doctrines, but none stronger than the Qur’an. Let’ learn more….
6.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to describe the structure of the Qur’an.

2. The student should be able to state where the most important chapters of the Qur’an are and why.

3. The student should be able to explain a historical criticism of the Qur’an.

6.3 Unique Features and Structure of the Qur'an

• The Qur'an contains 114 chapters, or surahs. The Bible contains 1,189 chapters and is about three times
longer than the Qur'an.
o Each surah has a title (or more than one) taken from some word or phrase in the text.
 Muslims claim that Muhammad, on God's command, gave the chapters their names. The claim
that Muhammad dictated all the chapter names is highly unlikely since most of the chapters
were not arranged in their final form until after Muhammad's death, and often these surahs in
their present form contain a mix of material from different periods of the prophet's revelatory
career. There is evidence, however, that several of the surahs (or parts thereof) had recognized
titles during Muhammad's lifetime (Muslim 4:1766; Al-Bukhari 8:78:638).
o According to Islamic scholars, 28 surahs were revealed in Medina, while 86 surahs were revealed in
Mecca,.
o Every surah (with the exception of Surah 9: At-Tawba [The Repentance]) begins with the phrase bismillah,
which literally means "in the name of Allah."
 The bismillah phrase as a whole reads "bismillah ir-rahman
o ir-raheem," which is translated, "In the name of Allah, the gracious, the merciful."
o The Qur'an is typically structured with longer surahs appearing earlier in the text, while shorter ones
appear towards the end.
 The chapter arrangement is not connected to the sequence of revelation. To anyone familiar
with the Bible who begins to read the Qur'an, it is immediately apparent that the Qur'an is an
entirely different kind of literature, whatever its poetic merits. Whereas the Bible contains much
historical narrative, the Qur'an contains very little.
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