Sura

The term Sure sure / سورة / Sura refers to a portion of the Koran, the holy scripture of Islam. Regarding the word origin a connection with the Hebrew word שורה is shura (row) suspected. The etymology of the word is disputed. Richard Bell sees in the term a derivation from the Syrian Surta / Surta ( font, text).

At Muhammad's time was understood Sure not the whole of a Koranic sura, as it was compiled in the first collections after his death, or how these suras appear in contemporary prints, but a thematically self-contained unit of the revealed God word.

At the beginning of each sura, except for the ninth, which was sent down as a reminder, is the basmala. The suras are themselves divided into individual, rhymed prose سجع sadsch '/ saǧ ʿ wrote verses, called Ayat Ayat آيات, Sing aya ( sign verse ). The number of verses in the sura title is specified.

Arrangement / chronology of the suras

The 114 suras which were revealed in the course of over two decades after the Islamic idea to Muhammad from God, are not content or chronologically but grossly its length, sorted in descending order. Within the individual suras chronologically there are unexplained juxtapositions of Ayat (Qur'anic verses ) that do not correspond to the historical sequence of revelation. The temporal allocation of a single Aya in one and the same Qur'an has always been the subject of the Islamic sciences of the Qur'an. An exception is al - fatiha الفاتحة / al - Fatiha /, the opening Sura ' which, although relatively short, at the beginning of the Koran is, as a complete revelation unit is understood. Each sura bears its own name in Arabic, which is also used to cite as the source; citation by Suren numbers is common only in European languages ​​.

The suras are divided according to the place and time of revelation in Makkan and Madinan; this is indicated in the printed editions in the title. In the Qur'an itself, the word sura occurs ten times, for example, in Sura 24, verse 1:

" [This is ] a Sure, we revealed and made ​​obligatory and in which we clear signs. : Have (or verses ) sent down "

In the Koran, Sura is usually understood as a revelation unit consisting only of a few verses. Sura 9, verse 64 it says:

" The hypocrites fear that a sura will sent down to them, showing them customer is about what they have in their hearts. "