Sections, Surahs, Ayahs, and Make up
Reciting the Quran is the duty of every good Muslim on a daily basis. Whether
in congregation or separately, every literate believing man, woman and child
should be reading, learning and sharing from the Book of Allah.
For those who desire to complete their recitation or reading of the Quran
within a certain time frame, they are most pleased to find the Quran is separated
into thirty (30) even parts called "juz-un" in Arabic or Para in Persian (Farsi).
It is also divided into seven equal parts. If someone reads a "juz'un" each
day, in 30 day they will have completed the entire Quran in one month.
The seventh part of the Quran is called a manzil, which if read all the way
through in one day will make the complete recitation of the entire Quran in
only one week.
Ordinarily the quarters of each sipara (1/4, 1/2, 3/4) are also marked in
Arabic language as Ar-rub', An-nisf and Ath-thalata.
Divisions according subjects are quite different. Quran is comprised of 114
surahs of unequal size. Surahs (chapters) are numbered and consecutive numbers
are displayed just before the title of each surah. Each surah consists of
ayahs (verses?) and there are a total of about 6,327 ayats in the entire Quran.
Surah (or chapter) Baqarah has 286 ayahs and that makes it the biggest of
surahs in the Quran.
It is better to leave the words "surah"; "ayah" and even "Quran" in the Arabic
language rather than attempt to translate them to words in English. This is
better because they are technical terms used for Muslim's religious literature.
The ayat (similar to verse) is usually determined by the rhythm and cadence
in Arabic Text. Sometimes an ayah contains more than one sentence or may even
have many sentences within the ayah. A sentence may also be divided by a break
in the ayah and you would have to read from the next ayah to complete the
subject, or topic. However, there is usually intended in these cases, a pause
in meaning at the end of the ayah.
There are also logical divisions of the surahs into sections to indicate divisions
according to the meanings. There is a word for these sections in Arabic called
"ruku" and it means bowing the head toward the ground in respect to Almighty
Allah in the prayer.