THE CODEX OF THE RECEIVED TEXT (M U Ṣ Ḥ A F)

The Qur'ānic text transmitted to us betrays a peculiar composition, essentially different from that of the Hebrew Bible, which pursues salvation history through a roughly chronological sequence of events, and equally different from the Gospels that narrate the essential stages of the founding history of the Christian faith. The Qur'ān does not present a continuous narrative of the past, but in its early texts conjures the future, the imminent day of judgement, and later on enters into a debate with various interlocutors about the implementation of monotheist scripture in the present.

External subdivisions

In terms of form, the Qur'ān is not a sequentially coherent book, made up of sub-units that build on each other, but rather consists in a collection of 114 independent text units, sūras (sūra, pl. suwar) with no evident external link to each other. A sūra is marked by a heading giving its name, and by an introductory invocation, the so-called basmala: 'in the name of God, the compassionate and merciful' (bi-smi llāhi l-rahmāni l-rahim). The term sūra is used in the Qur'ān, though originally referring to undetermined text units, smaller than the eventually fixed sūras. Whereas in some cases the names of the sūras are contested, several sūras being known under more than one name, the introductory formula - that is missing in only one sūra, Q 9 - goes back to the recitation practice of the Prophet's community itself. The sūras vary in length from two-sentence statements to lengthy polythematic communications.