BASMALAH AND THE SURAS

The Quran consists of 114 (19×6) suras. The number 114 is one of the most fundamental numbers in the Quran; the number of chapters that form the Quran is 6 times 19.

Another interesting point is that the sura “People,” which is the 114^th sura of the Quran, has only 6 verses. When we divide 114 by 19, it gives 6, and that is the number of verses that the last and 114^th sura “People” has.

The most frequently used and the most outstanding verse of the Quran is known by every Muslim by its abbreviated name Basmalah, which is read as “Bismillahirrahmanirraheem.” We can easily say that the group of words whose repetition is most frequent in the world is Basmalah. It means “In the name of God, Gracious, Merciful.” Basmalah is used 114 (19×6) times in the Quran.

One may say that this is not a proof related to the miracle of 19, since there are already 114 suras in the Quran and every sura has a Basmalah at the beginning, it is quite normal to have 114 Basmalahs. It can be said that there is a symmetrical relationship between the number of suras and the number of Basmalahs.

This is not true, however, as the sura “Repentance,” the 9^th sura of the Quran, is different and does not have a Basmalah at the beginning. Thus, the number of Basmalahs is 113 and 113 is not a multiple of 19. Please, see how this problem in the Quran was solved. God astonishes us by first formulating a problem and then solving it in a marvelous way.

The sura “The Ant” is the 27^th sura of the Quran. In this sura Basmalah is used twice, once at the beginning and again in the 30^th verse; in this way, the total number of Basmalah becomes 114 (19×6). The fact that the number of suras and the number of Basmalahs being used totals 114, which is a multiple of 19, is a very fundamental and easy to understand example.

Now, briefly, let us look at some examples related to this issue, which needs a certain mathematical background to understand. 30, which is the number of the verse in which the missing Basmalah was found, is the 19^th composite number as we have seen before. This means that 30 is the 19^th number that has multipliers. For instance, 4 (2×2), 12 (4×3), 15 (5×3), 27 (9×3) are composite numbers. Please count again to see whether 30 is the 19^th composite number or not: (4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30).

When we count Basmalahs that are at the beginning of the suras, the number we arrive at is 113 and it is the 30^th prime number. This number “113” sends us to the 30^th verse for Basmalah. As we mentioned before, 30 is the 19th composite number.

The mathematical miracle God displays has a marvelous system: One Basmalah for every sura’s introduction. The number of suras and Basmalahs are both 114. Although one sura spoils the symmetry of Basmalah as we have mentioned before, both the number of suras and the number of Basmalahs being multiples of 19 is the result of the miracles. We find the lost Basmalah in the 30^th verse of the 27^th sura, “The Ant.”

30- It is from Solomon and it is in the name of God, Gracious, Merciful.
27-The Ant, 30

The missing Basmalah in the 19^th sura is found in the 27^th sura, which is 19 suras after the 9^th sura.

And if we add the verse number, which is 30, and the 27 of the 27^th sura, we have 30+27=57 (19×3).

If we add all the sura numbers from the 9^th sura to the 27^th sura (9+10+11+12 +…+24+25+26+27), we have 342 (19×8). It would be a mistake to consider this an additional miracle; since every consecutive 19 numbers’ total is a multiple of 19 as every consecutive 17 numbers’ total is a multiple of 17. Yet the number 342 has an additional feature. There are 342 (19×8) words from the beginning of the 27^th sura to the Basmalah in the 30^th verse. This is another element of the miracle, of course.

There are 342 words from the beginning of the sura “The Ant” to the lost Basmalah, and this number is a multiple of 19. This number is equal to the total of the sura numbers from the sura “Repentance,” which has no Basmalah, to the sura “The Ant” in which the lost Basmalah is found. These two features are independent of one another.