This diversity of punctuation does not generally affect the meaning of any important passage. The third verse of the third Súra is an important exception. The position of the circle
, the symbol denoting a full stop, in that verse is of the highest importance in connection with the rise of scholasticism ('Ilm-i-kalám) in Islám.
Most of the cases, however, are like the following:—
In Súra xxvii. an account is given of the Queen of Sheba's receiving a letter from King Solomon. Addressing her nobles she said: "Verily, Kings, when they enter a city (by force) waste the same, and abase the most powerful of the inhabitants hereof: and so will (these) do (with us)." Many Readers put the full stop after the word "hereof," and say that God is the speaker of the words "and so will they do."
(4). Súra, or chapter. The word Súra means a row or series, such as a line of bricks arranged in a wall, but it is now exclusively used for chapters in the Qurán. These are one hundred and fourteen in number. The Súras are not numbered in the original Arabic, but each one has some approximate name, (as Baqr—the cow, Nisá—women, &c.,) generally taken from some expression which occurs in it. They are not arranged in chronological order, but according to their length. As a general rule, the shorter Súras which contain the theology of Islám, belong to the Meccan period of the Prophet's career,[[54]] and the longer ones relating chiefly to social duties and relationships, to the organisation of Islám as a civil polity, to the time when he was consolidating his power at Madína. The best way, therefore, to
read the Qurán, is to begin at the end. The attempt to arrange the Súras in due order, is a very difficult one, and, after all, can only be approximately correct.[[55]] Carlyle referring to the confused mass of "endless iterations, long windedness, entanglement, most crude, incondite" says: "nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European through the Qurán." When re-arranged the book becomes more intelligible. The chief tests for such re-arrangement are the style and the matter. There is a very distinct difference in both of these respects between the earlier and later Súras. The references to historical events sometimes give a clue. Individual Súras are often very composite in their character, but, such as they are, they have been from the beginning. The recension made by Zeid, in the reign of the Khalíf Osmán, has been handed down unaltered in its form. The only variations (qirá'at) now to be found in the text have been already noticed. They in no way affect the arrangements of the Súras.
5. Sípára a thirtieth portion. This is a Persian word derived from sí, thirty, and pára, a portion. The Arabs call each of these divisions a Juz. Owing to this division, a pious man can recite the whole Qurán in a month, taking one Sípára each day. Musalmáns never quote the Qurán as we do by Súra and Áyat, but by the Sípára and Rukú', a term I now proceed to explain.
6. Rukú' (plural Rukúát). This word literally means a prostration made by a worshipper in the act of saying the prayers. The collection of verses recited from the Qurán, ascriptions of praise offered to God, and various ritual acts connected with these, constitute one act of worship called a "rak'at." After reciting some verses in this form of prayer, the worshipper makes a Rukú', or prostration, the
portion then recited takes the name of Rukú'. Tradition states that the Khalíf Osmán, when reciting the Qurán during the month of Ramazán, used to make twenty rak'ats each evening. In each rak'at he introduced different verses of the Qurán, beginning with the first chapter and going steadily on. In this way he recited about two hundred verses each evening; that is, about ten verses in each rak'at. Since then, it has been the custom to recite the Qurán in this way in Ramazán, and also to quote it by the rukú', e.g., "such a passage is in such a Sípára and in such a rukú'."