The Basmala and the Number of Surahs
بسملة وعدد سور القرآن
Verse reference
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِالفاتحة 1
Interpretive reading
The Quran has 114 surahs (114 = 19 × 6), and the basmala contains 19 letters; these numeric correspondences have been studied by Dr. Rashad Khalifa in his research on the significance of the number 19, an interpretive reading rather than a conclusive proof.
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Related readings
The words 'sea' and 'land' in their proportional occurrence
ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ
The word “sea” appears 32 times in the Quran and “land” 13 times, a ratio of 32/(32+13) = 71.1%. Some readers note that this percentage may be read as corresponding to the proportion of Earth’s surface covered by water; this is an interpretive reading.
كلمة البحر والبر بنسبتهما الحقيقيةThe word 'day' and its plural
خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ
The singular word 'day' appears 365 times in the Quran — the same number as days in the solar year. This observation is sometimes read as meaningful and is an interpretive reading.
كلمة يوم وجمعهNumerical Symmetry in Quranic Words
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The words “this world” and “the Hereafter” each occur 115 times; “intellect” and “light” each occur 49 times; and “angels” and “devils” each occur 68 times. This is an interpretive reading of word frequencies and may be understood as highlighting numerical correspondences in the Quran.
التناسق العددي في كلمات القرآن