Words you'll meet

Plain descriptions of words used on this site. Each says what a word names. None is a ruling or an interpretation.

Surah: One of the 114 chapters of the Qur'an.
Ayah: One verse of the Qur'an. Verses are numbered surah:verse, so 2:255 is surah 2, verse 255.
Meccan (revealed in Mecca): The traditional label for a surah dated to the years before the Prophet's move from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. This site shows the label the Tanzil data gives.
Medinan (revealed in Medina): The traditional label for a surah dated to the years after the Prophet's move from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. This site shows the label the Tanzil data gives.
Basmala (bismillah): The line that begins “bismillah”, “in the name of God”. It stands at the head of every surah except surah 9; in surah 1 it is counted as verse 1.
Muqatta'at: The separate Arabic letters, such as Alif Lam Mim, that open some surahs. They are read out one letter at a time.
Muhkam: An Arabic word in verse 3:7 for one of the two kinds of verse it names. Talal Itani renders it “definitive”; Edward Henry Palmer, “decisive”.
Mutashabih: An Arabic word in verse 3:7 for the other of the two kinds of verse it names. Talal Itani renders it “unspecific”; Edward Henry Palmer, “ambiguous”.
Mushaf: A written or printed copy of the whole Qur'an.
Tafsir: Commentary on the Qur'an: the works in which scholars interpret and explain its verses.
Hadith: A report, passed down through named narrators, of something the Prophet Muhammad said or did.
Sunnah: The practice of the Prophet Muhammad. Hadith are the reports through which it is passed down.
Fatwa: A formal opinion on a question of Islamic law, given by a scholar who has been asked for one.
Asbab al-nuzul (occasions of revelation): Accounts of the circumstances in which particular verses of the Qur'an are reported to have been revealed.
Abrogation (naskh): A doctrine discussed by scholars: that a later ruling in the Qur'an can replace an earlier one. Scholars differ on which verses, if any, it concerns.
Easy-read: The line under the Arabic that spells out how the Arabic sounds, in Latin letters. It is a pronunciation guide, not a translation.
DIN 31635: A German standard for writing Arabic in Latin letters, with marks for long vowels and for sounds English does not have.
Tanzil: The Tanzil Project, which publishes the Arabic text of the Qur'an and the surah information this site uses, under a Creative Commons licence.
Uthmani: A way of spelling the Arabic of the Qur'an, named after the copies made in the time of the caliph Uthman. The Arabic on this site is Tanzil's Uthmani edition.