Quran

The Quran, also written as Qurʾān or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. The literally meaning of the word is "recitation," and the word meaning also includes reading with understanding and learning. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature. 

The Quran is divided into 114 chapters, each of which is called a surah. This word means “eminence”. The chapters are of varying lengths, the largest of them comprising fully one twelfth of the entire Quran and the smallest containing only three verses. Each chapter is , however, complete in itself.

If you wish to listen to a recitation of a surah, you can click to listen to Surah Al-Mulk (note: the link at left links to an outside website). The video contains Arabic and English translation of the recited words. An extracted image from the video is shown below:

Muslims believe that the Quran was orally revealed by God to the final prophet, Muhammad, through the archangel Gabriel, beginning in the month of Ramadan, when Muhammad was 40; and concluding in 632, the year of his death. The Quran was revealed piecemeal during a period of twenty three years. The shorter chapters generally are revealed entirely and at one time, while the revelation of the majority of the larger chapters and some of the shorter chapters extended over many years. Of the twenty three years over which the revelation was spread, thirteen years were passed at Mecca and ten years were passed at Medina, to which city he had to fly for the safety of his own life and the lives of his followers. Out of the 114 chapters, 93 were revealed at Mecca and 21 were revealed at Medina.

This is Muhammad's first revelation, Surah Al-Alaq, later placed 96th in the Quranic regulations, in current writing style:

Two English translations of the Quran are provided:

English translation of The Quran by Rodwell

English translation of The Quran by Ali     (file size: about 15 MB)