How many words are in the Qur'an?

Synopsis

How many words are in the Qur’an? This may seem like a straight forward question to answer, but when one searches one is presented with multiple answers. For instance, Al-Suyuti gives three answers: 77934, 77437, and 77277,¹ but many others can be found online. Few explain how the number was calculated. In this article the number of words in the Qur’an will be counted, and the method of counting explained, and the reason why there are multiple answers explained too.

It was found that there are 77915 words in the Hafs Qur’an and that this number cannot automatically be transferred to other Qur’ans because Qur’ans vary in their number of words depending upon which qira’a (reading) they are.

Method

First the Qur’an will be defined, then what constitutes an Arabic word for counting, and the counting method explained. Finally the results of the counting process will be presented. After this there will be a discussion of the results.

Defining the Qur’an

The Qur’an used in this article is the qira’a (reading) of `Aasim transmitted by Imam Hafs - the Hafs Qur’an. This is the most common Arabic Qur’an used today. The text used was that found in the Microsoft Word (MS) Qur’an Add-In.² A brief history of the Hafs Qur’an is as follows.

Muhammad never collected the words of the Qur’an into one book.³ Instead this was done by his companions. These companions made different collections which had different numbers of suras and words.⁴ The caliph Uthman standardised one collection and banned the others.⁵ The Uthmanic Qur’an has been transmitted through ten canonical qira’at (readings).⁶ These different readings do not have the same number of words. For instance, the Hafs Qur’an has a huwa in sura 57:24 which other Qur’ans do not have;⁷ and it considers the Basmala⁸ at the start of each sura to be a verse of that sura while other Qur’ans do not.⁹ The Basmala is made up of four words. This means the Hafs Qur’an has an extra four words for each sura compared to some of the other readings. These word differences make the number of words in the Hafs Qur’an unique.

Defining Arabic words and counting

The method for counting was to install the Qur’an Add-In to MS Word. This Add-In allows the Arabic text of the Hafs Qur’an to be imported into a document where MS Word automatically counts the words. MS Word counts Arabic words in ‘units’, thus, prefixes like waw, bi, la, and ki, which are attached to a word are counted as part of that one word. When importing the text the ayah (verse) number option was turned off because the verse number was found to be included in the word count. Several short suras were counted manually to test that the MS Word count was correct, and it was found to be so. When each sura was imported the first and last few words were compared to a printed Hafs Qur’an to confirm that the entire sura was present. Finally, as discussed earlier, the Hafs Qur’an considers the Basmala to be the first verse of each sura. The Qur’an Add-In did not include the Basmala at the start of each sura except for sura 1. Therefore, the four words of the Basmala needed to be added manually to the word count for all suras except sura 1 and 9. Sura 9 does not have a Basmala.

Results

sura	words	sura	words	sura	words
1 al-Fatihah	29	39 az-Zumar	1177	77 al-Mursalat	185
2 al-Baqarah	6123	40 al-Mu’min	1224	78 an-Naba	177
3 Ali `Imran	3485	41 Ha Mim	798	79 an-Nazilat	184
4 an-Nisa	3751	42 ash-Shura	864	80 `Abasa	137
5 al-Ma’idah	2807	43 az-Zukhruf	835	81 at-Takweer	108
6 al-An`am	3055	44 ad-Dukhan	350	82 al-Infitar	84
7 al-A`raf	3325	45 al-Jathiyah	492	83 al-Mutaffifeen	173
8 al-Anfal	1238	46 al-Ahqaf	648	84 al-Inshiqaq	111
9 at-Tawbah	2498	47 Muhammad	543	85 al-Buruj	113
10 Yunus	1836	48 al-Fath	564	86 at-Tariq	65
11 Hud	1920	49 al-Hujurat	352	87 al-A`la	76
12 Yusuf	1780	50 Qaf	377	88 al-Ghashiyah	96
13 ar-Ra`d	859	51 adh-Dhariyat	364	89 al-Fajr	141
14 Ibraheem	835	52 at-Tur	316	90 al-Balad	86
15 al-Hijr	660	53 an-Najm	364	91 ash-Shams	58
16 an-Nahl	1849	54 al-Qamar	346	92 al-Layl	75
17 al-Isra’	1561	55 ar-Rahman	355	93 adh-Dhuha	44
18 al-Kahf	1583	56 al-Waqi`ah	384	94 ash-Sharh	31
19 Maryam	964	57 al-Hadeed	578	95 at-Teen	38
20 TaHa	1340	58 al-Mujadilah	476	96 al-`Alaq	76
21 al-Anbiya	1174	59 al-Hashr	449	97 al-Qadr	34
22 al-Hajj	1278	60 al-Mumtahinah	352	98 al-Bayyinah	98
23 al-Mu’minum	1054	61 as-Saff	225	99 az-Zalzalah	40
24 an-Nur	1320	62 al-Jumu`ah	179	100 al-`Aadiyat	44
25 al-Furqan	897	63 al-Munafiqun	184	101 al-Qari`ah	40
26 ash-Shu`ara	1324	64 at-Taghabun	245	102 at-Takathur	32
27 an-Naml	1155	65 at-Talaq	291	103 al-`Asr	18
28 al-Qasas	1437	66 at-Tahreem	253	104 al-Humazah	37
29 al-`Ankabut	984	67 al-Mulk	338	105 al-Fil	27
30 ar-Rum	824	68 al-Qalam	304	106 Quraysh	21
31 Luqman	550	69 al-Haqqah	262	107 al-Ma`un	29
32 as-Sajdah	378	70 al-Ma`arij	221	108 al-Kawthar	14
33 al-Ahzab	1291	71 Nuh	230	109 al-Kafirun	30
34 Saba	887	72 al-Jinn	289	110 an-Nasr	23
35 Fatir	781	73 al-Muzzammil	203	111 al-Masad	27
36 Ya Seen	732	74 al-Muddaththir	259	112 al-Ikhlas	19
37 as-Saffat	866	75 al-Qiyamah	168	113 al-Falaq	27
38 Sad	737	76 al-Insan	247	114 an-Nas	24	Total
	59167		16106		2642	77915

Discussion

There were three main accuracy issues regarding this counting process. First, that the Arabic files used in MS Word were of the Hafs Qur’an. This was confirmed by looking at specific verses which identify the Hafs Qur’an. However, as has been shown, the Hafs Qur’an includes the Basmala as the first verse of every sura except sura 9, and the MS Qur’an Add-In did not have this. This shows the Qur’an Add-In does not reflect Imam Hafs’ understanding of the Qur’an at every point. Second, that the digital method of representing words corresponded to the actual number of words. This was confirmed by manually counting several smaller suras and comparing them to the MS Word word count.

Finally, that the Arabic files used were complete. This was confirmed by checking the first and last few words of every sura in MS Word against a printed Hafs Qur’an. However, it was still assumed that the text was complete between these beginning and end checks.

The question could be asked, is digital counting inferior to manual counting? I do not believe so, because manual counting would introduce different potential errors that would need to be checked for.

Using MS Word to count the words of the Hafs Qur’an was straight forward and could be used for other Qur’ans or books if the text is available.

How does the number of 77915 compare to traditional Muslim word counts? Al-Suyuti provides us with some classical word counts.

People numbered the words of the Qur’an as seventy-seven thousand, nine hundred and thirty-four words [77934]. Another opinion is seventy-seven thousand, four hundred and thirty-seven [77437]: or seventy-seven thousand, two hundred and seventy-seven words [77277]. There are other opinions as well. It is said that the reason for the differences in numbering the words is that each word has its own truth, metaphoric value, expression and writing; expressing each of them is possible, and each scholar expressed a possibility.¹⁰

It is seen that the result of this article is within an acceptable range when compared to classical Islamic estimates. But why is there no exact number? Theoretically, it should be possible to count the number of words and arrive at an exact number. Al-Suyuti says the differences may be because of the “metaphoric value” of some words. This is to be doubted. A simpler explanation is that agreement of what the exact words of the Qur’an are has not yet been reached. There is no consensus as to what the exact Qur'an is.

Conclusion

How many words are there in the Qur’an? This article has shown that a number can be given but it must be specified which Qur’an is being referred to. In this case there was found to be 77915 words in the Hafs Qur’an. It is hoped that this number will be useful in statistical analysis of the Qur’an and in apologetics.