An interactive atlas

Quran by the Numbers

الأعداد والحساب في القرآن

Every count, sum, ratio and symmetry that people point to in the Quran, collected in one place. Open any entry to read the verses behind it, see how the count is made, and judge how firm the ground is.

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Established: countable from the standard text, no dispute Depends on counting: true under a common convention, shifts under others Contested: the count or its meaning is disputed

How the counting works

Almost every disagreement about numbers in the Quran comes down to four decisions made before anyone starts counting.

Which verse count

The text is fixed; the verse boundaries are not. Kufan numbering gives 6,236 verses and is what the Madinah mushaf prints. Basran, Medinan, Meccan and Syrian schools count between 6,204 and 6,232. Any claim that hinges on a verse number inherits this choice.

Whether the basmalah counts

Only in Al-Fatihah is "In the name of God" numbered as a verse. Elsewhere it opens the surah unnumbered. Word and letter totals move by hundreds depending on whether the 112 unnumbered basmalahs are included.

Which spelling

The Uthmani script drops some long vowels that modern spelling writes out (for example الرحمن has no alif after the mim). Letter counts differ by spelling. Letter-based claims, including most of the "19" claims, are sensitive to this.

Word form or root

Counting "day" can mean the exact form يوم, that form with any prefix, every singular variant, or every word from the root. Each gives a different total. The balanced pairs on this page nearly all rest on one such choice, which is why they are marked "depends on counting".