The word Qurʾān is derived from the Arabic Qaraʾ, which occurs at the commencement of [Sūrah xcv]., which is said to have been the first chapter revealed to Muḥammad, and has the same meaning as the Heb. ‏קָרָא‎ kārā, “to read,” or “to recite,” which is frequently used in [Jeremiah xxxvi]., as well as in other places in the Old Testament. It is, therefore, equivalent to the Heb. ‏מִקְרָא‎ mikrā, rendered in [Nehemiah viii. 8], “the reading.” It is the title given to the Muḥammadan Scriptures which are usually appealed to and quoted from as al-Qurʾān al-Majīd, the “Glorious Qurʾān”; al-Qurʾān ash-Sharīf, the “Noble Qurʾān”; and is also called the Furqān, “Distinguisher”; Kalāmu ʾllāh, the “Word of God”; and al-Kitāb, “the Book.”

According to Jalālu ʾd-dīn as-Suyūt̤ī, in his Itqān, p. 117, the Qurʾān is distinguished in the text of the book by the following fifty-five special titles:—

1. Al-Kitāb The Book.
2. Al-Mubīn The Enlightener.
3. Al-Qurʾān The Reading.
4. Al-Karīm The Good.
5. Al-Kalām The Word.
6. Al-Burhān The Proof.
7. An-Nūr The Light.
8. Al-Hudā The Guidance.
9. Ar-Raḥmah The Mercy.
10. Al-Furqān The Distinguisher.
11. Ash-Shifāʾ The Health.
12. Al-Muʿiz̤ah The Sermon.
13. Aẕ-Ẕikr The Reminder.
14. Al-Mubārak The Blessed.
15. Al-ʿAlī The Lofty.
16. Al-Ḥikmah The Wisdom.
17. Al-Ḥakīm The Philosopher.
18. Al-Muhaimin The Preserver.
19. Al-Muṣaddiq The Establisher of Truth.
20. Al-Ḥabl The Rope.
21. Aṣ-Ṣirāt̤u ʾl-Mustaqīm The Straight Path.
22. Al-Qaiyim The Strong.
23. Al-Qaulu ʾl-Faṣl The Distinguishing Speech.
24. An-Nabaʾu ʾl-ʿAz̤īm The Exalted News.
25. Al-Ḥasanu ʾl-Ḥadīs̤ The Good Saying.
26. Al-Mas̤ānī The Repetition.
27. Al-Mutashābih The Uniform.
28. At-Tanzīl The Revelation.
29. Ar-Rūḥ The Spirit.
30. Al-Waḥy The Inspiration.
31. Al-ʿArabī The Arabic.
32. Al-Baṣāʾir The Enlightenment.
33. Al-Bayān The Explanation.
34. Al-ʿIlm The Knowledge.
35. Al-Ḥaqq The Truth.
36. Al-Hādī The Guide.
37. Al-ʿAjab The Wonderful.
38. At-Taẕkirah The Exhortation.
39. Al-ʿUrwatu ʾl-Wus̤qā The Firm Handle.
40. Aṣ-Ṣidq The Righteous.
41. Al-ʿAdl The Justice.
42. Al-Amr The Order.
43. Al-Munādī The Preacher.
44. Al-Bushrā The Glad Tidings.
45. Al-Majīd The Exalted.
46. Az-Zabūr The Psalm.
47. Al-Bashīr The Herald of Glad Tidings.
48. An-Naẕīr The Warner.
49. Al-ʿAzīz The Mighty.
50. Al-Balāg͟h The Message.
51. Al-Qaṣaṣ The Narrative.
52. As-Sūḥuf The Pamphlets.
53. Al-Mukarramah The Excellent.
54. Al-Marfūʿah The Exalted.
55. Al-Mut̤āharah The Purified.
I.—The Inspiration of the Qurʾān.

According to Abū Ḥanīfah, the great Sunnī Imām, the Qurʾān is eternal in its original essence. He says, “The Qurʾān is the Word of God, and is His inspired Word and Revelation. It is a necessary attribute (ṣifah) of God. It is not God, but still it is inseparable from God. It is written in a volume, it is read in a language, it is remembered in the heart, and its letters and its vowel points, and its writing are all created, for these are the works of man, but God’s word is uncreated (g͟hairu ʾl-mak͟hlūq). Its words, its writing, its letters, and its verses, are for the necessities of man, for its meaning is arrived at by their use, but the Word of God is fixed in the essence (ẕāt) of God, and he who says that the word of God is created is an infidel.” (See Kitābu ʾl-Waṣīyah, p. 77.)

Muḥammadans believe the Qurʾān to have been written by “the hands of noble, righteous scribes,” mentioned in the Sūratu ʿAbasa [(lxxx.) 15], and to have been sent down to the lowest heaven complete, from whence it was revealed from time to time to the Prophet by the angel Gabriel. [[GABRIEL].]

There is, however, only one distinct assertion in the Qurʾān of Gabriel having been the medium of inspiration, namely, Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah [(ii.), 91]; and this occurs in a Medinah Sūrah revealed about seven years after the Prophet’s rule had been established. In the Sūratu ʾsh-Shuʿarāʾ [(xxvi.), 193], the Qurʾān is said to have been given by the Rūhu ʾl-Amīn, or “Faithful Spirit”; and in the Sūratu ʾn-Najm [(liii.), 5], Muḥammad claims to have been taught by the Shadīdu ʾl-Quwā, or “One terrible in power”; and in the Traditions the agent of inspiration is generally spoken of as “an angel” (malak). It is, therefore, not quite certain through what agency Muḥammad believed himself to be inspired of God, the Holy Spirit or the angel Gabriel.

According to the traditions, the revelation was first communicated in dreams. ʿĀyishah, one of the Prophet’s wives, relates (Mishkāt, xxiv. 5):—

“The first revelations which the Prophet received were in true dreams; and he never dreamt but it came to pass as regularly as the dawn of day. After this the Prophet was fond of retirement, and used to seclude himself in a cave in Mount Ḥirāʾ and worship there day and night. He would, whenever he wished, return to his family at Makkah, and then go back again, taking with him the necessaries of life. Thus he continued to return to K͟hadījah from time to time, until one day the revelation came down to him, and the angel (Arabic malak, Heb. malak͟h, “an angel; a prophet”; a name of office, not of nature [See Wilson’s Hebrew Lexicon, p. 13]) came to him and said, ‘Read’ (iqraʾ); but the Prophet said, ‘I am not a reader.’ And the Prophet related that he (i.e. the angel) took hold of me and squeezed me as much as I could bear, and he then let me go and said again, ‘Read!’ And I said, ‘I am not a reader.’ Then he took hold of me a second time, and squeezed me as much as I could bear, and then let me go, and said, ‘Read!’ And I said, ‘I am not a reader.’ Then he took hold of me a third time and squeezed me as much as I could bear, and said:—

“ ‘Read! in the name of Thy Lord who created;