The Qur’an

The Qur’an is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the book of divine guidance and direction for mankind, and consider the original Arabic text to be the final revelation of God.

Islam holds that the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad by the angel Jibrīl (Gabriel) from 610 AD to his death in 632 AD. The Qur’an was written down by Muhammad's companions while he was alive, although the prime method of transmission was oral. In 633 AD, the written text was compiled, and in 653 AD it began to be distributed in the Islamic Empire. The present form of the Qur’an is regarded as Muhammad's own words by Muslims worldwide. The search for significant variants by Western academia has been strongly rejected in the the Islamic world.

Muslims regard the Qur’an as the culmination of a series of divine messages that started with those revealed to Adam, regarded in Islam as the first prophet, and continued with the Suhuf Ibrahim (Scrolls of Abraham), the Tawrat (Torah), the Zabur (Psalms), and the Injeel (Gospel). The aforementioned books are not explicitly included in the Qur’an, but are recognized therein. The Qur’an also refers to many events from Jewish and Christian scriptures, some of which are retold in comparatively distinctive ways from the Bible and the Torah, while obliquely referring to other events described explicitly in those texts.

The Qur'an itself expresses that it is the book of guidance. Therefore it rarely offers detailed accounts of historical events; the text instead typically placing emphasis on the moral significance of an event rather than its narrative sequence. It does not describe natural facts in a scientific manner but teaches that natural and supernatural events are signs of God. Muslims believe the Qur'an itself to be the main miracle of Muhammad and that its alleged "inimitability" proves his status as a prophet.