Read the Qur'an with context

The aim of this website

The aim is to offer the best free-of-rights rendering of the Qur'an, with options that aid readability, such as columns, names, word study and quotation colouring. A further aim is to give all hadith and texts topic tags, so they become searchable and comparable. We also aim to link Quran passages to external sources and parallels, including the Tawrat, Zabur and Injil, so readers can compare similarities and differences directly.

It is not an aim to take theological positions on the content. The texts are presented factually; the judgement about them this site leaves to the reader.

What is the Qur'an?

The Qur'an (Arabic: al-Qur'an, ‘the recitation’) is the holy book of Islam. According to Islamic belief, Muhammad received the revelations between roughly 610 and 632 CE in Arabic, first in Mecca and later in Medina. According to Islamic tradition they were brought to him by a being that identified itself as the angel Gabriel (Jibril). For Muslims the Qur'an is the literal Word of Allah; only the Arabic text counts as the Qur'an itself — this English text is a translation of the meanings.

The text was memorised during Muhammad's lifetime and written on loose materials, and collected shortly after his death. Under the third caliph, Uthman (c. 650), a single standard text was established; the so-called Uthmani text shown on this site goes back to that tradition.

How is the book structured?

The Qur'an has 114 chapters, called surahs, together 6,236 verses (ayat). Each surah bears a name — often taken from a striking word in it, such as ‘The Cow’, ‘The Bee’ or ‘Mary’. The order is neither chronological nor thematic: after the short opening surah (Al-Fatiha) the surahs follow roughly from long to short. The earliest revelations are therefore mostly at the back.

A distinction is made between Meccan surahs (often short, poetic, about Allah's oneness, creation and the judgement) and Medinan surahs (often longer, with legislation and community order). All surahs except the ninth open with the basmala: ‘In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful’. Further characteristics are the repetition of core stories and formulas, and the direct address: the text usually addresses the hearer, as speech and recitation — not as a continuous narrative.

Reading guide: where to begin?

Reading the Qur'an from front to back is not the easiest route for a first acquaintance — after the short opening comes the longest surah at once. A commonly used entry point:

• Surah 1 (Al-Fatiha) — seven verses that every Muslim prays daily.
• Surahs 112–114 — the short closing surahs; surah 112 sums up the Islamic doctrine of God in four verses.
• Surah 19 (Maryam) and surah 12 (Yusuf) — the most narrative surahs, about Mary and Jesus, and about Joseph.
• Surah 36 (Ya-Sin) and surah 55 (Ar-Rahman) — two much-read Meccan surahs about creation, death and judgement.
• Then surah 2 (Al-Baqara) — the longest surah, with much of the Medinan legislation and the Throne Verse (2:255).

A full overview is on the page all 114 surahs, with each surah's name, meaning and full text.

In the reading view you can switch columns on and off and click any Arabic word for its root and meaning in the dictionary.

How do you use this site?

• ReadingChoose a surah or search by name. Use the bar above the text to switch English, Arabic, transliteration and Dutch on or off.
• Word studyClick an Arabic word for its root, lemma and core meaning, with a link to the dictionary.
• Topics and hadithSee what the Qur'an says per topic and search the hadith: all major collections and 77,000 narrations.
• SearchCtrl+K or the search field at the top right searches the full text.
• ReferencingEvery verse number is a link; its URL, for example #2:255, can be shared or cited.