The Order of Surahs in Quran

This is a question many ask, somehow puzzled as to why the Quran is not in chronological order. I have an answer for this on this blog: because the Quran is for all time, and it’s not about the history of Islam or the Quraish in the usual “just the facts” way (dates and genealogies as per the “many human hands wrote it” Bible). It conveys the Truth, and truth is immortal, timeless. Something out of vogue these days. Allah Himself is eternal, and sent us an eternal message in time. So of course the message will be eternal, timeless. Hence it’s not about chronologies and lineages – it’s about righteousness and piety in an age where money is god and banks are temples, quiet and well-funded, like places of worship. Nouman Ali Khan summarizes here why the order of the Quran now is Divinely intended, without a shadow of doubt. (You can also check out his course on the subject.)

The Difference that Waw Makes – 2 Views of Surat Al-Kawthar 108

A few years ago I published this analysis of Surat Al-Kawthar 108. Surprisingly, I just ran into the same sura analyzed on YouTube in an entirely different way with amazing results!

This video is by Binimad Al-‘Ateeki, who’s done some pretty impressive numerical miracle videos on the Quran, among other things. What’s interesting here is that his video shows us the same sura with some amazing results involving the number ten. Whereas I got what I thought were pretty fascinating results involving the number nine! So how did this happen?

Isa/Jesus and Maryam in the Quran – their Names and Message

The name of Isa/Jesus is frequently mentioned in the Quran as the son of Maryam/Mary, and so their mentions are linked. This aspect is not often discussed, so I will do it here, as well as analyzing how and where their names are expressed and placed in Quranic architecture. Jesus is referred as “Word” in the Quran, as well as in the Bible, for example in this significant aya, which also mentions the name of prophet Jesus in full:

˹Remember˺ when the angels proclaimed, “O Mary! Allah gives you good news of a Word from Him, his name will be the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary; honored in this world and the Hereafter, and he will be one of those nearest ˹to Allah˺. (3:45)

New PDFs re Quran Structure Based on Allah’s Name

You can download it here: first is an updated explanation in text, and the one below it is a brief one-page summary + a Quranic Architecture chart for illustration:

Explanation of the three four set plus 2.pdfDownload

Quran Structure Based on Allah’s Name.pdfDownload

This is a shortened version of the original that may help assimilate the idea (which can get very complex the more details you include). Photo of Al-Fatiha’s structure is below.

Mentions of Ships in the Quran Reveal Connection to Quranic Initials and Amazing Ship Graphic

The Quran mentions ships rather frequently, considering the subject matter, and some have wondered why. These mentions refer to how the use of ships for trade and more is a gift from Allah the Exalted, and a few mentions refer to Noah’s ark/ship, and fewer to the boat in the story of Moses and Al-Khidr. There’s an interesting correspondence between these mentions and the Quranic Initials (QIs) or muqatta’at, which in turn points us to the clear and also metaphorical connection between ships and the Quran as a message, especially emphasized in the story of Noah and his ship. Allah protects and elevates the lives of those who follow His guidance, saving them from the greater catastrophe of the Last Day, as He saved prophet Noah and the faithful believers who boarded the ark with him from the flood. In fact, the very nautilus design of the Quran correlates with that symbolic message. The placements of ship mentions in our spiral chart also reveals, using the classical elements symbolized in the chart, a graphic illustration of ship design and how it utilizes the Divine gift of buoyancy.

Light and Darknesses in the Quran

This is a huge and meaningful subject, so we will touch on some basic ideas as well the locations of these mentions in the Quran, whose binary theme it graphically illustrates.

LIGHT نور is associated with: day, illumination, truth, eternity, wholeness, healing, goodness, the Quran, guidance, opening, peace, straight path (note that light rays follow a straight path), love, hope, trust, faith, sincerity, guarding the sacred, eternal values vision بصير (inner light which is a separate word).

DARKNESSES ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ is associated with ignorance, concealment, hiding, closure, sickness of the soul, evil, tearing apart, falsehood, crooked path, crime, loss and misleading, oppression and injustice, misery, hopelessness, despair, hate, hypocrisy, betrayal, violence, violating what is sacred, worldly values.

Why is light mentioned as singular but darknesses plural? Because light, as used in the Quran, is One and Whole, but darknesses are scattered and plural, dispersing and separating.

The Four Great Suras of Salat (Prayer)

(Note: New Improved Post, removed the excess for a different post.) The four suras (like chapters/sections) of the Quran most frequently recited in the canonical Islamic prayer called salat are the first sura, Al-Fatiha “The Opening” (1), the quintessential prayer of salat, and the final 3 suras, Al-Ikhlas “Sincerity” (112), Al-Falaq “Daybreak/ Breaking-open” (113), and An-Nass “The People” (114). They are all short suras, making them easy to recite. Allah the All-Merciful wants this prayer to be easy for us, and at the same time a powerful and effective “connection” to Him, to His all-encompassing power and mercy. These four suras form a {2,3,4} set, with three (3) together at the end, and the fourth (4) in the very beginning, and two of these suras form a pair (2) in the “middle.” Thus the end of the Quran re-connects us to the beginning, analogous to how Resurrection and Judgment Day reconnect us to Allah in paradise where Adam was created at the beginning of humanity – if we had faith in Allah, and made a genuine effort in Allah’s path of justice and compassion.

Al-Raheem and Raheem in the Quran – Structural Interpretation

The name Al-Raheem – The All-Merciful – is commonly counted and “combined” with the adjective raheem – merciful, without the al- prefix. But considering the two separately has yielded interesting results. The name Al-Raheem “The All-Merciful” is mentioned 34 times, whereas the adjective raheem “merciful” is mentioned 81 times, or 3⁴, and thus these two different ways of mentioning raheem are themselves “paired” as a {3,4} set. A unique characteristic of both expressions of Allah’s mercy is that they are almost always paired: the name Al-Raheem is always paired with another name, and the adjective raheem is usually paired with another adjective – plus in the case of raheem, this pair (or simply raheem in a few cases) is almost always preceded by either the name Allah, Lord, “I,” or Him (referring to Allah or Lord), the one exception being in 9:128 referring to prophet Mohammad as “kind, merciful” to the believers. This shows that kindness/caring is the form of mercy we are encouraged and indeed enabled to exemplify. And these unique stylistic traits teach us about what mercy itself means, in our relationship to Allah, each other, and to all life.

Interpretation of Quranic Numbers 9.5 and 19

The number 19 is, for a number, relatively famous (or perhaps infamous) as a Quranic number, but is mentioned in the Quran (74:30) and is a factor of the number of suras in the Quran, 114 = 6 x 19. The number 9.5 is not known to be significant, but revealed a significance while studying the metaphor of the chambered nautilus and its significance in the Quran. That is explained elsewhere on this blog, but I will flesh it out separately here. The numbers 9.5 and 19 are formative elements in the design of Quranic Architecture as discussed on this blog. In its calendric architecture, the Quran is divided into 12 months for each “year,” or each complete turn of the spiral. For 114 suras, there are 9.5 years, expressed by an equation: 114 ➗ 12 = 9.5. Then when we multiply 9.5 x 2 = 19, we can ask the question “is there any significance to this equation in terms of the meaning of the Quran?” And the answer is a resounding YES! Explained below:

Placements of the Name Al-Rahman and Their Meaning

Here we shall examine the placements of this exalted name in the Quran using the architectural “nautilus” chart, the possible meanings inherent in these placements, as well as some fascinating patterns. This also gives a sense of how the “nautilus chart” can indicate possible interpretations to increase our understanding of the Quran. Previously we examined the significance of the name Al-Rahman, as well as the name’s stunning relationship to perfect numbers. Here we show a surprising connection between this name and the sacred months, elucidating their sacred nature.

The Positions and Times of Salat in Quran form a 3,4 set

In studying the Quran’s {3,4} structure, we found salat elements also fit this pattern, showing us its connection to Allah’s name and this structure at the heart of the Quran. Because salat is central to Islamic practices and emphasized in the Quran, we examine its perimeters first, and then the important Quranic ayat which describe these positions as a {3,4} set, and the times of day in which salat is to be offered, expressing the five prayer times also as a {3,4} set.

Is the Quran’s Structure Based on Allah’s Name?

This is a very real possibility, which I began to examine while thinking that possibly all numbers somehow relate to or are reflective of Allah’s name. That seems way beyond my limited mathematical abilities – yet after studying the Quran in details, I ran into a simple pattern expressed in two ayat, 4:3 (itself a {3,4} set) and 35:1, as “two and three and four,” essentially a {2,3,4} set, which in turn reflects the {3,4} set, as expressed in Allah’s name. I’ve discussed this {3,4} set previously as well as how Allah “wrote mercy upon Himself” (6:12 and 6:54). Here finally is a post that covers this topic.

Surat Al-Fīl 105, Then and Now

This sura is usually presented as a straight-up story about how Allah the Almighty protected the Kaaba and also the Quraish tribe (of prophet Mohammad) in a mighty victory over Abraha’s powerful army, famous for using an elephant or elephants as mounts in battle, and known to be capable of causing destruction wherever they went. The traditional story is that Allah sent flocks of birds to attack Abraha’s army, pelting them with stones “of baked-hard clay”, rendering the army “like chewed-up hay.” It is said this event occurred in the year when prophet Mohammad (pbuh) was born, considered a very good omen, due to the amazing victory that Allah produced alone with no human input (except the du’a of prophet Ibrahim untold ages earlier). We will examine the range of meaning in the sura’s Arabic words shown in various interpretations of the details, also noting its is pairing with the sura that follows it, Surat Al-Quraish discussed here, and more, including 2 Nouman Ali Khan videos on the subject.

What are “Houses” in Quranic Architecture?

Since I use this term more often as the study of Quranic architecture develops, it’s important to discuss it separately. It simply refers to the “pie sections” in the spiral/circle of the Quranic architecture, and each of these pie sections or houses represents the same month of the symbolic “year” in its calendar design. Each sura within that House is like a return to the same month, but in a different year, just like one returns to January or July each year. So for example, Al-Fatiha (the Opening) is in the First House representing Muharram (Prohibition) in the Hijri calendar, which is also the New Year. All the suras in the First House are also in Muharram, the same “month:” such as Al-R’ad (Thunder) sura 13, and Al-Furqan (The Criterion), sura 25; these suras also carry some of the same relevant meanings for that House/month. Thunder is like an initiating force, thundering us into awareness of something new, electrifying (“new year”); the word furqan actually means to “break open/apart” and thus distinguish (“criterion”) between the dichotomies, such as good/bad and heaven/hell (“opening”). The final sura in the First House is Al-Kafiroon “The Disbelievers” – a fitting end for “Prohibition,” as these are the people who will be prohibited from the celestial realm of Allah in paradise.

Quran Transforms Zodiac to Signs of Ethical Path

An old blog post – “Why 114 Chambers?” – revamped and published on its original date – explains how zodiac symbolism is properly interpreted as guideposts to the Way of Allah. The post goes into brief details of each constellation’s “sign” as exemplified in the Quran, showing these placements of the suras correlate with both the Hijri months and Zodiac signs in uncanny ways that point to —> ethical behavior. For those who wish to “cut to the chase” and see what it all boils down to, the final set of principles derived from this study are shown below. Adding a reference to the discovery of an ancient Arab zodiac not mentioned in the above-linked post.

The Quran’s References to the Moon and What They Mean

Most common counts of the moon in the Quran consider only the word qamar, the standard word for moon in general, mentioned 27 times, the sidereal lunar cycle count. But in the Quran are two more words related to the moon: alahilla, crescent moons, the plural of hilal; and badr, which means “full moon,” but is it used in reference to a famous battle victory, not the moon, except symbolically, which would have been understood by the Arabs at the time the Quran was sent. If we include these, the lunar mentions in the Quran increase to 29 mentions in 28 ayat (verses) and 25 suras. But if we choose not to count the Badr reference, the total would be 28 lunar mentions in 27 ayat in 25 different suras. In all three cases the numbers of mentions and ayat are “lunar numbers,” relating to cycles of the moon. Here we discuss how these mentions are arranged in the Quran and examine the ayat that use the two words different from the word qamar, showing how the word badr as symbolic refers to the apex of the moon’s luminescence as an example of how a battle victory can be a shining light or possibility for a beleaguered people, giving them patience through the “darker” or more difficult days.

Quranic Architecture and the Periodic Table

These are some interesting connections between the Quran and the periodic table that are more food for thought than anything conclusive. Many have dabbled in ways of connecting the Quran to the periodic table, but I have yet to find a convincing and comprehensive one. Perhaps the graphics below will inspire someone to examine this issue further. Before the modern periodic table came into common use, a number of historical periodic tables were devised in circular form, which we compare to our Quranic architectural chart below. UPDATE: just discovered more connections between the periodic table and the Quran, especially its numbers. In a separate section below the last one about iron.

Rabb Al-‘Alameen in Quran

As the 7th and 8th words in the Quran, and arguably the 4th name of Allah in Al-Fatiha, the name Rabb Al-‘Alameen is significant and appears in the Quran 42 times in 42 verses in 21 suras. Thus it is not repeated in any verse, but is frequently repeated among the suras. Of these 42 ayat/verses, 7 are ayat of praise like the second verse of Al-Fatiha 1:2.  As both 42 (6×7) and 21 (3×7) are multiples of 7, this is an interesting correlation. Much interpretation has been given by scholars to this name over time, most interpreting the word al-alameen to refer to all that exists except Allah, or in the words of Ibn Abbas, “all the heavens and what they contain, all the earths and what they contain, and all that is between them, be it known or unknown.” Or, as Ibn ‘Arabi put it, “all through which God can be known.” He also thought of the term rabb as referring to the level where existence and the Divine are related. But for me, I think of Rabb in itself as simply the relationship name for Allah, because unlike other names of Allah, it easily and unequivocally accepts possessive usage, such as “my Lord” (using “lord” as the English expression for rabb), “their Lord,” “your Lord,” etc. Adding the expression al’alameen signifies that this name only can possibly refer to Allah the Exalted.

The Quran’s Arrangement Is Entirely by His Design

This may seem to be an obvious “given” any Muslim would deem true of the Quran. Yet surprisingly other ideas have made their way into “mainstream” Islamic belief. This article addresses the history of compiling and numbering the Quran, an interesting subject indeed, fleshed out here in great detail. But in the process states this: 

The order of the surahs was not based on the order the archangel Gabriel gave them to Prophet Muhammad, but on the consensus of the companions. (Emphasis mine.)

With all due respect, this is an assumption based on anecdotal and certainly non-Quranic sources that directly contradicts the Quran, a fact of which the author(s) of this article and possibly also their source(s) may not have been fully aware. Although the order of revelation differs from the final arrangement, this is by Allah’s design, and the final arrangement was given directly through Jibreel (Gabriel) to prophet Mohammad, not a decision made by sahaba after his death. Saying that it was presumes it is somehow out of Allah’s jurisdiction – while we should know that everything is in Allah’s jurisdiction.

The 40 Tawheed Statements in the Quran, their Placement and Meaning

The basic statement of tawheed, Allah’s singularity or “oneness,” is  لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ or lā ilāha illā Allāh, explained here. This Basic Tawheed Statement is also the form of the Shahada or Islamic creed declaring there is no god but Allah – the name Allah being a form of the word “god” in Arabic that can only be One God. Since tawheed is the central tenet of Islam – monotheism – this statement is of course central to the Quran’s message. 

There are six main variations of it, the most frequent being lā ilāha illā hua or لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ, which means “no god except Him,” mentioned in the Quran 30 times (with 4 variations in how this expression is framed). The total mentions of all forms of Tawheed Statement are 40, itself a significant Quranic number. Thus, there are 30 Tawheed Statements containing the words lā ilāha illā hua out of 40 total mentions in the Quran of all variations of Tawheed Statement, a significant {3,4} pairing, a structural pattern in the Quran based on the Arabic name Allah (the Most High). The contexts of these statements give us a range of insight into the meaning of tawheed (oneness/ singularity) itself.