One of the many things that the so-called Muslim scholars cannot agree on is how many verses there are in the Quran. But how can we expect them to agree on something that needs adding or counting verses while they cannot even count the 19 letters of the Basmalah (the first verse of the Quran)? Unfortunately, some scholars claim that the Basmalah does not consist of 19 Arabic letters, and they are sure about it. However, they are not sure if it has indeed 18,20,21,or 22 letters. This is in spite of the fact that historically, the gematrical (or numerical) value of the Basmalah has been known to be 786, which nails down the number of its letters to 19. One of these religious scholars who cannot count well is Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Baz, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. He also declared that the Quran does not consist of 114 suras (chapters). By the way, he still insists on his view that the earth is flat. Imagine the people who take his word on religious issues!

The Quran is clear about the scholars who follow their opinions and mislead the people who follow them:

Say, “O people of the scripture, do not transgress the limits of your religion beyond the truth, and do not follow the opinions of people who have gone astray, and have misled multitudes of people; they are far astray from the right path.” [5:77]

Sura and Verse Numbers

The numbering system of the Quran’s suras and verses has been perfectly preserved. Only a few unauthorized and easily detectable printings deviate from the standard system that is divinely guarded.

 

The total number of verses in the Quran is 6346.  This includes 112 unnumbered Basmalahs which occur at the beginning of the suras. (Note that the first sura has a numbered Basmalah, and Sura 9 has no Basmalah. Without the unnumbered Basmalahs, the number of verses in the Quran is 6234. The mathematical structure of the Quran based on the number 19 makes this number an undeniable fact.

Review of Some Known Facts

1. The number 6346 is a multiple of 19:
   6346 = 19 x 334.
2. The digits of 6346 add up to 19:
   6 + 3 + 4 + 6 = 19.
3. When we add the numbers of all suras, plus the number of verses in every sura, plus the sum of verse numbers, the grand total for the whole Quran comes to 346199,or 19x19x959.

If we consider only the 29 initialed suras, the above procedure gives a total of 190133, or 19x10007.

4. Adding up the digits of the Quran’s suras and verses produces a total of 1881, or 19x99.

As can be seen from the few samples above, the Quran’s mathematical structure is vast and very intricate.  Yet, it is simple to understand.

New findings

Brother K.Emami, from Atlanta, Georgia, made a discovery by God’s leave, further verifying the number of verses in Quran.

The last sura revealed to Prophet Muhammad was Sura Al-Nassr (Triumph). The number of this sura is 110, and it has three verses. We know that this sura consists of 76 (19x4) Arabic words, and the first verse of the sura consists of 19 Arabic letters.

Brother Emami added the gematrical value of each Arabic letter in this sura. (Note that the gematrical value of a letter is the value assigned to the letter, an old practice before the current numbering system was introduced). The total gematrical values of the three verses in this sura are as follows:

Verse	Gematrical Value
1	1638
2	1771
3	2715
Total	6124

 

Adding the sura number, 110, to the total we get

6124 +110 =6234

Which is the total number of (numbered) verses in the Quran.

Also, he concatenated the verse number and the gematrical value of each verse and added the resulting numbers. As in the case of previous calculation, he also added the sura number, 110, to the total. The resulting number is a multiple of 19:

11638 + 21771 + 32715 + 110 = 66234 or 19x3486.

God be glorified.

                                                                  Abdullah Arik