The Qur'ān (Arabic: القرآن al-Qur’ān, literally "the recitation"; Muslims usually refer to it as القرآن الكريم al-Qur’ān al-Karīm "The Noble Qur'ān"; also transliterated as Quran, Koran, and Al-Quran) is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the book of divine guidance and direction for mankind, consider the text in its original Arabic, to be the literal word of Allah revealed to Muhammad over a period of twenty-three years. The Qur'ān consists of 114 suras, or chapters, of different lengths, with a total of 6237 verses (including the invocation verse), or ayat (lit. "sign"). The longest chapters at the beginning represent Muhammad's revelations and teaching from his final years, and the shortest chapters represent his first revelations and teachings appearing at the end of the Qur'an.

English translations of the Quran

In 1734, George Sale produced the first scholarly translation of the Qur'ān into English; another was produced by Richard Bell in 1937, and yet another by Arthur John Arberry in 1955. All these translators were non-Muslims. There have been numerous translations by Muslims; the most popular of these are the translations by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al Hilali, Maulana Muhammad Ali, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, M. H. Shakir, Muhammad Asad, and Marmaduke Pickthall.