How Many Surahs Are in the Quran: 114 and Other Key Facts

Quran Numbers at a Glance

This table gives the main numbers in one place. The sections below explain each one and show where it comes from.

How Many Surahs Are in the Quran?

There are 114 surahs in the Quran. The first is Al-Fatihah (surah 1) and the last is An-Nas (surah 114). A surah is a chapter. Quran.com and Tanzil both list 114 surahs, and scholars agree on this number.

The surahs are not in the order they came down. After the short opening, Al-Fatihah, they run mostly from long to short. That is why long surahs like Al-Baqarah come first and the short ones are near the end. If you want to start with the short ones, see our list of 15 short surahs for kids.

A few old books note other counts, such as 113 if Al-Anfal and At-Tawbah are joined as one surah. Even so, scholars agree on 114. Every surah except At-Tawbah (surah 9) starts with the basmala, the words Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim.

How Many Juz Are in the Quran?

There are 30 juz in the Quran. A juz is a part, and people use the 30 parts to read or learn the Quran a little at a time. Quran.com and Tanzil both list 30 juz. In South Asia, a juz is often called a para.

In the Madinah Mushaf, a printed Quran with 604 pages, a juz is about 20 pages. A juz often starts in the middle of a surah. For example, Juz 2 starts at ayah 142 of Al-Baqarah.

Juz 30 is called Juz Amma. It starts at surah 78, An-Naba, and runs to the end of the Quran. It holds 37 surahs, and most of them are short. See Juz 30 on Quran.com, or our guide on how to memorize Juz Amma.

How Many Hizb Are in the Quran?

There are 60 hizb in the Quran. A hizb is half of a juz, so 30 juz make 60 hizb. Quran.com lists 60 hizb, such as Hizb 60, and Wikipedia gives the same number.

Each hizb has 4 quarters, so the Quran has 240 quarters. Tanzil lists all 240 of them. A quarter is often used as a small portion to review when a student memorizes the Quran.

How Many Ayahs Are in the Quran?

There are 6,236 ayahs in the Quran by the Kufan count, named after the city of Kufa. This is the count in most printed copies today. An ayah is a verse. The total does not add the basmala at the top of each surah as an extra ayah. Quran.com and Tanzil both give 6,236, and their numbers match surah by surah.

Other counts exist, so the total can differ a little. Old scholars agreed that the Quran has six thousand and some ayahs. They did not agree on the rest. The Kufan count adds 236 to the six thousand, which gives 6,236. The Syrian count adds 226, which gives 6,226. A list that al-Suyuti quotes also has 6,204. Old books name seven numbering systems: Medina I, Medina II, Mecca, Damascus, Hims, Basra and Kufa.

Why the gap? The counts differ on where some ayahs end and the next one begins. They do not differ on the words. No word is added or taken out of the Quran in any of them.

Some people also count the basmala at the top of each surah. There are 112 of these that are not numbered as ayahs. The basmala of Al-Fatihah is already its ayah 1, and At-Tawbah has none. Add the 112 to 6,236 and you get 6,348. Wikipedia lists both totals.

You may also see 6,666 online. Wikipedia says that number is not correct, and it is not in any of the counts above.

Which Is the Longest Surah, and Which Is the Shortest?

The longest surah is Al-Baqarah (surah 2), with 286 ayahs. The shortest is Al-Kawthar (surah 108), with 3 ayahs. The ayah counts of Quran.com and Tanzil match, and Wikipedia names the same two surahs. You can read them on Quran.com: Al-Baqarah and Al-Kawthar.

Two other surahs also have 3 ayahs: Al-Asr (103) and An-Nasr (110). Al-Kawthar is the shortest because it has the fewest words. In the word-by-word view on Quran.com, it has 10 words. Al-Asr has 14 and An-Nasr has 19.

How Many Sajdah Places Are in the Quran?

Tanzil's list has 15 sajdah places. Sajdah means prostration, and these are ayahs that scholars list as places of prostration when the Quran is recited. Scholars agree that there are no more than 15.

Schools count them in different ways, so you will see different totals, such as 14 and 15. For example, the Hanafi count is 14, because the second place in Al-Hajj is not counted. This page lists the places only. It gives no ruling, so ask your teacher which list they follow.

Here are the 15 places in Tanzil's list. Open any link to read the ayah on Quran.com:

Dorar's guide says scholars agree on ten of these places. They differ on five: the second place in Al-Hajj, and the places in Sad, An-Najm, Al-Inshiqaq and Al-'Alaq. That is why different schools end up with different counts.

How Many Makki and Madani Surahs Are There?

Quran.com and Tanzil both list 86 Makki surahs and 28 Madani surahs. That adds up to 114. This is the count of these two sources, and other books mark a few surahs differently. A Makki surah came down before the hijrah, the move to Madinah. A Madani surah came down after it.

The names are about time, not place. A surah that came down after the hijrah is called Madani, even if it came down outside Madinah. Some Makki surahs also hold Madani ayahs, and some Madani surahs hold Makki ayahs. So the label follows the start of the surah.

Scholars did not agree on every surah. For example, the tafsir on Dorar.net gives two views for Ar-Ra'd (surah 13) and for Al-Qadr (surah 97): some scholars said Makki and some said Madani. So the exact split depends on the list you use.

Quran.com and Tanzil mark these surahs as Madani, by surah number: 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 13, 22, 24, 33, 47, 48, 49, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 76, 98, 99 and 110. The other 86 are Makki.

Using These Numbers to Plan Your Reading

These numbers help you plan. With 30 juz, you can read one juz a day and finish the Quran in 30 days. In the Madinah Mushaf that is about 20 pages a day. Our guide on how to finish the Quran in Ramadan shows how to fit this into a busy day.

For memorizing, a short surah or one quarter of a hizb is a small goal that a student can reach. A teacher sets the pace.

How We Checked These Numbers

We compared each number with the sources listed at the bottom of this page on 11 October 2026. We checked Quran.com and Tanzil against each other. The ayah count of every surah matches, and so does the list of Madani surahs. The other counts come from the books and papers named in the sources.

This page is a list of facts. It is not a fatwa. If you think a number is wrong, please tell us.

Learn to Read the Quran Well With a Teacher

Knowing the numbers is a start. Reading each ayah right is the next step. If you or your child cannot read Arabic letters yet, start with Noorani Qaida, the first book for reading Arabic. If you can read and want to fix your sounds, try our online Tajweed classes.

At Salam Campus, the classes are live and 1-on-1. Each Qaida and Tajweed lesson is 30 minutes, and you can ask for a male or a female tutor. Not sure where to start? Book a free 30-minute trial class and read for the tutor. No card is needed.