{The Quran}[9th April 1991]

[Redbook9:56-58][19910409:1239b]{The Quran}[9th April 1991]

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[continued]

‘In length the Qur’ān is approximately comparable with the New Testament. For purposes of recitation during the holy month of Ramadān it is divided into 30 “portions” (juz’, plural ajzā’), one for each day of the month. Its main division, however, is into 114 chapters, called sūrahs, of very unequal length. With the exception of the first sūrah, the so-called fātihah, (“opening”) of the book, which is a short prayer, the sūrahs are arranged roughly according to length, sūrah 2 being the longest and the last two or three the shortest. Because the longer sūrahs generally derive from the latter part of Muhammad’s activity, the consequence of this arrangement is that the oldest sūrahs are generally to be found towards the end of the book and the youngest generally appear at its beginning.

*

*[– Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:6]

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