Quran

Here you can find standards related to the Quran itself.

The Quran consists of 114 chapters called "surah". Each surah consists of verses, called "ayah". In total, there are 6 236 ayahs, and 77 429 words in the Quran.

Note: there are different counting methodologies of the Quran, which means the total number of ayahs differs depending on the methodology used. We rely on the most common methodology due to its popularity, and since it makes mapping datasets possible.

Surahs

There are 114 surahs in total. Surahs have a varying number of ayahs. The number of ayahs in a surah variate from 3 (surahs 103, 108, and 110) up to 286 (the second surah). The number of ayahs in a surah and the surah number are independent.

Each surah has a conventional name in Arabic. In a translated version of the Quran, both transliterated names and translated names can be used. For example, the second surah is called البقرة which in an English translation can be presented like "The Cow" (translation) or "Al-Baqarah" (transliteration). Some surahs have non-conventional names as well but they are not considered in our sources.

Surahs are also categorized in many ways. The most popular categorization is the period of revelation, which is either Meccan or Medinan. In short, before and after the hijra (the Prophet's migration) from Mecca correspondingly.

Ayahs

The accepted standard of the Digital Quran is 6 236 ayahs. The main sources of differentiation on the number of ayahs are the basmala and the mystery letters of the Quran called the "Huroof-al-Muqattaat". In the used standard the basmala:

• In the first surah (Al-Fatihah): is a part of the surah and considered as the first ayah,

• In the 9th surah (At-Tawbah): is not presented, i.e. there is no basmala at the beginning of it at all,

• In all other surahs: it is presented but not considered as an ayah of the surah

Ayahs consist of words. The number of words in an ayah variate from 1 up to 128 (ayah 282 of the 2nd surah). Read more about the word bellow.

Words

The term "word" is special when it comes to the Quran. The accepted standard of Digital Quran is 77 429 words. Whereby saying the word we mean a part of the Medina mushaf text which is separated by white spaces with the only one exception: the word "إل ياسين" (Elijah) in 130th ayah of 37th surah. Please, notice that such definition differs from what we usually mean by "word". For more details, one can take a look at the Corpus Quran project which gives a good description for each "word" of the Quran.