Surah, ayah, juz, hizb, page: how the mushaf is divided
What each division of the Quran actually is — which are part of the text itself and which were added to make reading, memorising and finishing it manageable — with the numbers of the Madinah mushaf.
Open a printed Quran and four different systems are visible on the same page: a surah name, verse numbers, a line that says Juz 4, and a mark for a hizb. It is not obvious which of these belong to the text and which were added later to make it possible to read the whole thing on a schedule. That distinction is what this article is about.
The Arabic commentary quoted below is al-Tafsir al-Muyassar; the rendering is mine.
The ayah
The verse is the smallest unit, and the most firmly fixed of them all: the Quran names it, and treats the boundary between one and the next as a known thing. In the Madinah mushaf in the Hafs reading — the text this site serves — there are 6,236 verses.
[This is] a surah which We have sent down and made [that within it] obligatory and revealed therein verses of clear evidence that you might remember.
The surah
A surah is a set of verses with a name, a beginning and an end. The Quran uses the word in its own challenge:
And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our Servant [Muhammad], then produce a surah the like thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you should be truthful.
and treats a surah as a unit that comes down:
And when a surah was revealed [enjoining them] to believe in Allah and to fight with His Messenger, those of wealth among them asked your permission [to stay back]…
There are 114 surahs, from Al-Fatihah to An-Nas. Al-Fatihah is referred to in the Quran by a phrase that counts its verses:
And We have certainly given you, [O Muhammad], seven of the often repeated [verses] and the great Qur'an.
Al-Muyassar reads seven of the often repeated as Al-Fatihah — seven verses repeated in every prayer.
It came down in pieces
Before the parts and sections, one thing is worth noticing: the Quran was not sent down all at once, and it says so about itself.
And [it is] a Qur'an which We have separated [by intervals] that you might recite it to the people over a prolonged period. And We have sent it down progressively.
Indeed, upon Us is its collection [in your heart] and [to make possible] its recitation.
So when We have recited it [through Gabriel], then follow its recitation.
(Al-Qiyamah 75:17, Al-Qiyamah 75:18)
Juz, hizb, rub'
These are the practical divisions, and they say nothing about meaning. The text is cut into 30 ajza' (juz) of roughly equal length, so that a reader finishing one a day completes the Quran in a month. Each juz is halved into two ahzab (hizb), giving 60; each hizb is quartered, giving 240 arba'.
The cuts ignore where surahs start and stop. Juz 1 ends inside Surah Al-Baqarah, and juz 2 opens at Al-Baqarah 2:142. They are a reading schedule, not an outline of the content.
The page
The page is the newest of the divisions and the one tied to a particular printing: page counts differ between editions. The Madinah mushaf, which this site's page numbers follow, has 604 pages, each ending at the end of a verse so that no word is split across a turn.
That is why people who memorise talk in pages — "two pages a day", "the first side". In QuranEye each page boundary is drawn where the printed mushaf turns, and the reader bar names the page you are currently in, so your place on a screen still maps onto the printed book.
In short
- Ayah and surah — named by the Quran itself; their order and count are what Muslims have carried in the mushaf since the earliest generation.
- Juz, hizb, rub' — marks added so the Quran can be read, memorised and completed on a schedule.
- Page — a property of the edition; today most commonly the 604 pages of the Madinah mushaf.
On the site:
- Surahs and parts — the full list, with both tabs
- Daily portion — counts the pages you read each day
- Shared khatmah — splits by juz or by pages
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