The central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be the direct word of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over approximately twenty-three years. The Quran is the foundation of Islamic theology, law, and ethics; the model for classical Arabic prose and poetry; the text memorized in its entirety by millions of hafiz; and the constitution of Islamic civilization in a sense that goes beyond any analogy to scripture in other traditions. Its world effect operates through law, language, ritual, architecture, and political authority across 1,400 years.
The Quran is not the Islamic Bible. It is not a narrative of God's dealings with a people across history. It is not the record of a prophet's teachings. Muslims believe it is the direct speech of God — the actual words, not their meaning, not a translation of divine intent into human language. This claim has consequences that run through every aspect of Islamic civilization. It means the Arabic of the Quran is sacred — not the language Muhammad spoke but the language God spoke. It means the text cannot be translated without becoming something else. It means memorizing it is an act of worship, not just scholarship. And it means that law derived from it is derived from God, not from human reason reasoning about God's intentions.