Quran- Basics

The Quran (English pronunciation: /kɒˈrɑːn/ kor-ahn; Arabic: القرآن‎ al-qurʾān, IPA: [qurˈʔaːn],[variations] literally meaning "the recitation"), also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God[1] (Arabic: الله‎, Allah). It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language.[ The Quran is divided into 114 suras of unequal length which are classified either as Meccan or Medinan depending upon their place and time of revelation.

Muslims believe the Quran to be verbally revealed through angel Jibrīl (Gabriel) from God to Muhammad gradually over a period of approximately 23 years beginning in 610 CE, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death. Muslims further believe that the Qur'an was precisely memorized, recited and exactly written down by Muhammad'scompanions (Sahaba) after each revelation was dictated by him.

Shortly after Muhammad's death the Quran was compiled into a single book by order of the first Caliph Abu Bakr and at the suggestion of his future successor Umar. Hafsa, Muhammad's widow and Umar's daughter, was entrusted with that Quranic text after the second Caliph Umar died. When the third Caliph Uthman began noticing slight differences in Arabic dialect he sought Hafsa's permission to use her text to be set as the standard dialect, the Quraish dialect now known as Fus'ha (Modern Standard Arabic). Before returning the text to Hafsa Uthman made several thousand copies of Abu Bakr's redaction and, to standardize the text, invalidated all other versions of the Quran. This process of formalization is known as the "Uthmanic recension". The present form of the Quran text is accepted by most scholars as the original version compiled by Abu Bakr.