29 surahs out of 114 in the Quran are prefixed with a set of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 Arabic letter(s) known as Quranic initials and their total number is 30. The surahs that prefix these initials are called initialed surahs and the surahs that do not prefix any initials are called non-initialed surahs. Thus, there are 29 initialed and 85 non-initialed surahs in the Quran. However, let us thoroughly review these initials to derive important information from the Quran with regard to their significance and role rather than overlooking their presence in the Quran considering them mysterious or their meaning is only known to God keeping in mind that there is no nonsense in the Quran.
- Details of initials including surah and verse numbers and surah names
- Alif Laam Meem (2:1- Al-Baqarah)
- Alif Laam Meem (3:1- Aal Imran)
- Alif Laam Meem Saad (7:1- Al-A’araf)
- Alif Laam Rah. That is of signs (Quranic initials) of the wise scripture (10:1- Younus)
- Alif Laam Rah. A scripture of its verses is perfected, then is explained in detail from Wise, Cognizant (11:1-Hud).
- Alif Laam Rah. That is of signs (Quranic initials) of the clarifying scripture (12:1-Yousuf).
- Alif Laam Meem Rah. That is of signs (Quranic initials) of the scripture, and which has been revealed to you (Muhammad) from your Lord is the truth, but most of the people do not believe (13:1-Al-Raad).
- Alif Laam Rah. A scripture we have revealed it to you (Muhammad) that you may bring the people out of the darkness into the light by their Lord’s permission to a path of the Almighty, the Praiseworthy (14:1-Ibrahim).
- Alif Laam Rah. That is of signs (Quranic initials) of the scripture and a clarifying Quran (15:1-Al-Hjr).
- Kãf Hã Yã `Ayn Sãd (19:1-Maryam).
- Ta Ha (20:1-Ta Ha).
- Ta Seen Meem (26:1-Al-Shu`araa).
- Ta Seen. That is of signs (Quranic initials) of the Quran and a clarifying scripture (27:1-Al-Naml).
- Ta Seen Meem (28:1-Al-Qasas).
- Alif Laam Meem (29:1-Al-Ankaboot).
- Alif Laam Meem (30:1-Al-Ruum).
- Alif Laam Meem (31:1-Luqman).
- Alif Laam Meem (32:1-Al-Sajdah).
- Yaa Seen (36:1-Yaa Seen).
- Saad and the Quran possessing the warning (38:1-Saad).
- Ha Meem (40:1-Gaafer).
- Ha Meem (41:1-Fussilat).
- Ha Meem (42:1). Ayn Seen Qaf (42:2) – Al-Shuuraa).
- Ha Meem (43:1-Al-Zukhruf).
- Ha Meem (44:1-Al-Dukhan).
- Ha Meem (45:1-Al-Jatheyah).
- Ha Meem (46:1-Al-Ahqaf).
- Qaf and the glorious Quran (50:1-Qaf)).
- Nun and the pen and what they write (68:1-Al-Qalam).
- List of 30 Quranic initials prefixed to 29 initialed surahs with their numbers and names
| SL No | Set of Quranic Initials | # of Letters per set | Surah No | Surah with English counterpart |
| 1 | Alif Laam Meem | 3 | 2 | Al-Baqarah (The Heifer) |
| 2 | Alif Laam Meem | 3 | 3 | Aal Imraan (The Family of Amran) |
| 3 | Alif Laam Meem Saad | 4 | 7 | Al-A’araf (The Purgatory) |
| 4 | Alif Laam Rah | 3 | 10 | Younus (Jonah) |
| 5 | Alif Laam Rah | 3 | 11 | Hud (Hud) |
| 6 | Alif Laam Rah | 3 | 12 | Yousuf (Joseph) |
| 7 | Alif Laam Meem Rah | 4 | 13 | Al-Ra’ad (Thunder) |
| 8 | Alif Laam Rah | 3 | 14 | Ibrahim (Abraham) |
| 9 | Alif Laam Rah | 3 | 15 | Al-Hijr (The Hijr Valley) |
| 10 | Kaf Haa Yaa Ayn Saad | 5 | 19 | Maryam (Mary) |
| 11 | Ta Ha | 2 | 20 | Ta Ha (T.H) |
| 12 | Ta Seen Meem | 3 | 26 | Al-Shu’araa (The Poets) |
| 13 | Ta Seen | 2 | 27 | Al-Naml (The Ant) |
| 14 | Ta Seen Meem | 3 | 28 | Al-Qasas (History) |
| 15 | Alif Laam Meem | 3 | 29 | Al-Ankaboot (The Spider) |
| 16 | Alif Laam Meem | 3 | 30 | Al-Room (Romans) |
| 17 | Alif Laam Meem | 3 | 31 | Luqmaan (Luqman) |
| 18 | Alif Laam Meem | 3 | 32 | Al-Sajdah (Prostration) |
| 19 | Yaa Seen | 2 | 36 | Yaa Seen (Y. ‘S) |
| 20 | Saad | 1 | 38 | Saad (S) |
| 21 | Ha Meem | 2 | 40 | Ghaafer (Forgiver) |
| 22 | Ha Meem | 2 | 41 | Fussilat (Detailed) |
| 23 | Ha Meem | 2 | 42 | Al-Shuuraa (Consultation) |
| 24 | `Ayn Seen Qaf | 3 | 42 | Al-Shuuraa (Consultation) |
| 25 | Ha Meem | 2 | 43 | Al-Zukhruf (Ornaments) |
| 26 | Ha Meem | 2 | 44 | Al-Dukhan (Smoke) |
| 27 | Ha Meem | 2 | 45 | Al-Jatheyah (Kneeling) |
| 28 | Ha Meem | 2 | 46 | Al-Ahqaf (The Dunes) |
| 29 | Qaf | 1 | 50 | Qaf (Q) |
| 30 | NoonwawNoon | 2 | 68 | Al-Qalam (The Pen) |
Note: Noon prefixed to surah Al-Qalam is spelled out to represent two Noons
- Certain properties of Quranic Intials
- 14 sets of initials consisting of 14 Arabic letters in the 30 initials prefixed to the 29 initialed surahs.
- The initialed surahs are prefixed with a set of Quranic initials consisting of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 Arabic letter(s) and surah 42 is prefixed with 2 sets of Quranic initials – one set consisting of 2 Arabic letters and the other set consisting of 3 Arabic letters.
- At the very beginning of the revelation, initials are single-lettered but the number of letters in the initials are increased in the later revelations.
- The position of the 30 Quranic Initials at the beginning of the 29 initialed surahs.
- The first position of a set at the 2nd surah (Al-Baqarah), which is between Surah 1: Al-Fatehah and Surah 2: Al-Baqarah while Surah 2 (Al-Baqarah) is the 87th revelation and Surah 1 (Al-Fatehah) is the 5th revelation.
- The last position of one set as spelled out to two Noons prefixed to the 68th surah, which is the first initialed surah according to the order of revelation.
- Ha has 2 forms – open and closed having two different gematrical values in certain initials.
- Out of 14 sets of initials, 10 of them are single instances and 4 of them are multiple instances.
- Nun has been spelled out to represent the two Nuns.
| # of Set | Quranic Initials | # of Instances | Letters | # of Letters | 14 Letters in 14 Sets |
| 1 | Alif Laam Meem | 6 | Alif Laam Meem | 3 | Alif, Ta, Haa. Ha, Rah, Seen, Saad, Ayn, Kaf, Qaf, Laam, Meem, Nun, Yaa. |
| 2 | Alif Laam Meem Saad | 1 | Saad | 1 | |
| 3 | Alif Laam Rah | 5 | Rah | 1 | |
| 4 | Alif Laam Meem Rah | 1 | – | – | |
| 5 | Kaf Haa Yaa Ayn Saad | 1 | Kaf Haa Yaa Ayn | 4 | |
| 6 | Ta Ha | 1 | Ta Ha | 2 | |
| 7 | Ta Seen Meem | 2 | Seen | 1 | |
| 8 | Ta Seen | 1 | – | – | |
| 9 | Yaa Seen | 1 | – | – | |
| 10 | Saad | 1 | – | – | |
| 11 | Ha Meem | 7 | – | – | |
| 12 | Ayn Seen Qaf | 1 | Qaf | 1 | |
| 13 | Qaf | 1 | – | – | |
| 14 | Nun | 1 | Nun | 1 |
- Major role of Quranic Initials
- The initial, Alif Laam Meem is a gateway between the specific words given by God to us for our prayers being children of Adam (7:23, 2:37) and the words of God for our guidance, which are to be followed to become righteous (2:2).
- The 30 initials at the beginning of the 29 initialed surahs and 76 statements of God in the 23 non initialed suras serve as oaths of God to give us a guarantee of truth on His certain teachings.
- Since they occur at certain frequencies in the Arabic text of the relevant surahs and the groups of surahs of the Quran, they serve as a letter level guard to continue to have a pure Arabic Quran upon discovery until the end of the world in the event of any human errors or any distortions.
- The initialed surahs deal with the unusual events or represent the information in unusual ways that certain assurance required from God to reflect as well as to accept the truth from Him.
- The initialed surahs prefixed with a set of Quranic initials consisting of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 letter(s) and the increase in the letter number in the initials has occurred according to God’s plan to deal with the events of our difficulty level to understand.
- The statements that immediately follow the initials code certain crucial messages that need our special attention to reflect.
- Mathematical Confirmation
a. If the initialed sura numbers and the verse numbers where initials are found is added, and then the sum is added with the initialed sura #, which is 29, and the initial #, which is 30, the total is a multiple of 19 => 853 + 29 + 30 = 912 = 19x48. The detail is in the table below:
Note: The parameters, the particular set of initials associated with the verse #, the initialed surah # and # of set of initials including two sets of initials prefixed to sura 42: Al-Shuuraa are confirmed.
b. If the initialed sura numbers and the number of letters in the initials prefixed to the relevant initialed sura is added, and then the sum is added with the total the initialed verses, which is 30, the total is a multiple of 19 => 901 + 30 = 931 = 19x49. The detail is in the table below:
Note: The parameters, letter # in the initial and # of verses of initials are confirmed. Verse numbers are replaced with letter numbers in the initials in the confirmation (b) while both verse and initial # are same, which is 30.
The above two pieces of mathematical confirmation about Quranic initials authenticate the following:
- 30 Quranic initials prefixed to 29 initialed suras including double initials prefixed to surah 42: Al-Shuuraa
- The placement of the initialed suras in the composition of the Quran (Mus’haf) in addition to the physical proof obtained from placing each sura # next to each revelation order #, the long number being a multiple of 19.
- The verse numbers associated with the instances of initials (30) of the initialed surah numbers (a) and the number of letters in the initials associated with the initialed sura verse number (b).
- The double initials prefixed to the surah 42 and 2 Nuns as spelled out to represent the prefixed to the surah 68: Al-Qalam.
- The 2 major divisions of Quran: (a) words of God given as our prayer (surah 1: Al-Fatehah) (b) words of God given as our guidance (from surah 2: Al-Baqarah to surah 114: Al-Naas). Not only the position of the sura Al-Fatehah but also its Arabic wording and the properties given to it makes it quite different from the words of God given in the rest of the Quran as our teaching and laws.
- It is required to observe Salat prayer by recitation of surah 1 (Al-Fatehah) without combination of any other suras or a portion from the God’s words for our guidance in each unit (Rak’ah) in addition to the two physical proofs from the surah 1: Al-Fatehah itself being the number of words in its 7 verses equal to the sum of the digits of 7 verse numbers, both of which are 28, and the surah number which is 1 and the digits of its seven verses are placed next to each other, the number is 11234567, which is a multiple of 19 => 11234567 = 19x591293. However, those who perform Salat by recitation of some words making certain moves without knowing its objective would be difficult for them to reflect and accept this fact, though this practice is the prime source to nourish our soul (29:45) through only remembering God (20:14).
Conclusion
God has designed His last scripture which we may also call it the last version of His scripture and has assigned numerous attributes to it to serve as a guidance for all the people of the world from the time of prophet Muhammad until the end of the world. The Quran is efficiently designed and it has all to serve as the last scripture. The initials as the physical proofs of Quran hidden from us 1400 years, which has been unveiled in 1974 by God’s leave serve as incontrovertible proofs that the Quran is God’s message to the world and as a letter level guard to continue to have a pure Arabic Quran until the end of the world in the event of any human errors, variations or distortions with possibility of a single version of the Quran for all.
The Quran has divinely been divided into suras and verses, composition and revelation, numbered and unnumbered verses, and presence and absence of opening verse known as Basmala, and all of these divisions subject to extract appropriate message from it in particular context. God has also assigned numerous attributes to it for us to apply the principle of ‘divide and conquer’ for our best use of it such as initialed and un-initialed surahs, God’s words for our prayer and God’s words as our guidance, Meccan and Medinan surahs which is because of immigration of prophet from Mecca to Medina, and early and later revelations, isolation and association of certain sets of verses with certain events, processes and practices to better understand to avoid any misconceptions or to remove any distortions and innovations while the division of the whole Quran into 30 ‘paras’ facilitates memorization of the Quran for many but of course, not to read the whole Quran in the Tarawih prayer during the month of Ramadan as this practice is not a commandment from God.
The true believers trust in God, and depend on His words to understand what to do and how to do being reverent to Him as it has details for everything while some instructions are direct, some are indirect and some are to be derived from it. The Quranic initials being attributes of Quran play a significant role to help us to have clear understanding in practicing certain things in a right way and their two-fold mathematical proof provides us certainty to accept them. It is true that 14 sets consisting of 14 Arabic letters in 30 Quranic initials to be the physical proofs of the Quran from God and their total gematrical value, 1709 to pinpoint the survival and end of the world in the year 1710 A.H were hidden from us for 14 centuries being prophetic sign but the significance other than that was not hidden from the true believers of God and Quran. So the Quran has always been and would be fully detailed, complete and perfect being the guidance from the time of its revelation to the end of the world same as the Quran would continue to be a pure Quran for all the people of the world.
Peaceful Friday, salaam and God bless.
Tafazzal (12/30/2016).