The root ق ر أ
Qur’ān comes from the root ق ر أ (qāf, rā, hamzah), which means to read or recite. Related words include:
- قَرَأَ (qara’a): he read, he recited
- اقْرَأْ (iqra’): read! recite!
- قَارِئ (qāri’): a reciter; the plural qurrā’ is used for expert reciters
- قِرَاءَة (qirā’ah): reading, a style of recitation
The first word revealed
When the angel Jibril first came to the Prophet ﷺ in the cave of Hira, his first word was iqra’ (Sahih al-Bukhari 3). The first verses revealed were:
اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ“Read in the name of your Lord who created.”
So the name of the Quran and the first command in it share the same root. From the beginning, it was meant to be read and recited.
Other names the Quran gives itself
- الْكِتَاب Al-Kitāb: the Book (Quran 2:2), from the root ك ت ب, to write
- الْفُرْقَان Al-Furqān: the Criterion, which separates truth from falsehood (Quran 25:1)
- الذِّكْر Adh-Dhikr: the Reminder (Quran 15:9)
- النُّور An-Nūr: the Light (Quran 4:174)
- الْهُدَى Al-Hudā: the Guidance (Quran 2:185)
Al-Kitāb, “the Book”, and Al-Qur’ān, “the Recitation”, point to its two forms: written in pages and preserved in hearts and voices.
Recited and memorised
Because it is a recitation, the Quran has always been passed on by people reciting it aloud to each other, teacher to student. Today millions of Muslims have memorised it completely. A person who has done so is called a ḥāfiẓ (حَافِظ), meaning “one who preserves”.
Allah promises to protect it:
إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ“Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will be its guardian.”
The reward for reciting
The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever reads one letter of the Book of Allah receives a good deed, and each good deed is multiplied ten times. He added: “I do not say that Alif Lām Mīm is one letter; rather Alif is a letter, Lām is a letter and Mīm is a letter” (Jami‘ at-Tirmidhi 2910).
