Page 49 - World Religions I - Islam

 Muslim scholars acknowledge that most of the surahs, especially the longer ones, are
composite texts containing various passages that are not necessarily linked.
 Since Qur'anic texts are nonlinear, having no chronological sequence or order of deliverance, its
structure is akin to a web or net.
• Many of the Qur'an's statements and ideas bear little relationship to preceding chapters
and verses.
• The Qur'an engages the principle of endless repetition of the same material in order to
aid in the memorization by those who, we are told, were illiterate and uneducated.
o Surahs are classified as Meccan or Medinan, depending on the time period in which they were revealed.
 The dating of surahs is necessary in order to understand the chronology of the Qur'an, and to
link the revelation of passages to various traditional events.
 There are instances where certain verses are classified differently that the chapters in which
they reside.
• For instance, the Surah of Al-Muzzammil is classified as Meccan, with the exception of
verses 10, 11, and 20, which are Medinan.
o Surahs are formed by verses, or ayat (singular ayah).
 An individual verse may be just a few letters or several lines.
• The Qur'an as a whole is divided into thirty parts of roughly equal lengths.
o Each of the thirty parts are called a juz' (plural ajza', literally meaning "part").
 These divisions facilitate the recitation of the Qur'an in a month, especially during the Islamic
holy month of Ramadan.
• The Qur'an is also divided into seven approximately equal partitions.
o These seven partitions are called manzils (plural manazil) and are divided for the purpose of reciting the
entire Qur'an in one week.

• Divisions in the Qur’an

• Twenty-nine surahs begin with unique letter combinations known as muqatta'at (literally "abbreviated" or
"shortened").
o The various muqatta'at are placed after the bismillah and begin with anywhere from one to five non-
related letters of the Arabic alphabet. There is no reliable report of Muhammad having used such
expressions in his ordinary speech, or his having cast light on its usage in the Qur'an. And, more
importantly, none of his companions seemed to have asked him about it. This apparent lack of
inquisitiveness is cited as proof that such abbreviations were well known to the Arabs of the time and
were in popular usage long before the advent of Islam.
 Of the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet, exactly one half appear as muqatta'at.
o Eight of the 29 surahs begin with Alif, Lam, and Meem (A, L, and M), six others with Ha and Meem (H,
M), and five with the combination of Alif, Lam, and Ra (A, L, and R). Two chapters in the Qur'an, Surahs 20
and 36, in fact gets their name from the mystery letters with which they begin: Ta-Ha (T, H) and Ya- Sin (Y, S)
respectively.
o The meanings of the muqatta'at remain unclear and are considered by most Muslims to be divine secrets.

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