The Miracle of the Serial Order of the Suras opening with Abbreviated Letters (Fawatih)  

by  BASSAM JARRAR

          The Miracle of the Serial Order of the Suras opening with Fawatih (Letters)

Letter opening	Sura Name	No of Sura	No	Verses
A.L.M.	The Cow	2	1	286
A.L.M.	Imranites	3	2	200
A.L.M.S'	Purgatory	7	3	206
A.L.R.	Jonas	10	4	109
A.L.R.	Hud	11	5	123
A.L.R.	Joseph	12	6	111
A.L.M.R.	Thunder	13	7	43
A.L.R.	Abraham	14	8	52
A.L.R.	Hijr Valley	15	9	99
K.H.Y.'A.S'.	Mary	19	10	98
T.H.	Ta.Ha.	20	11	135
T.S.M	The Poets	26	12	227
T.S.	Ant	27	13	93
T.S.M	History	28	14	88
A.L.M.	The Spider	29	15	69
A.L.M.	Romans	30	16	60
A.L.M.	Luqman	31	17	34
A.L.M.	Prostration	32	18	30
Y.S.	Ya.Sin.	36	19	83
S.	Sad.	38	20	88
H.M.	Forgiver	40	21	85
H.M.	Elucidated	41	22	54
H.M.'A.S.Q.	Consultation	42	23	53
H.M.	Ornaments	43	24	89
H.M.	Smoke	44	25	59
H.M.	Kneeling	45	26	37
H.M.	The Dunes	46	27	35
Q.	Qaf.	50	28	45
NuN	The Pen	68	29	52

 Arabic version

There are 29 Suras in the Holy Qur’an beginning with letters (Fawatih), such as: Alif. Lam. Mim; Alif. Lam. Ra. These are called luminous letters and interpreters have discussed their meanings at length without arriving at any conclusion that is based on any evidence. One widely held opinion is that the Qur’an consists of letters like these which do not incapacitate you and thus Allah challenges people to produce a similar Qur’an with the letters available to them. However, generally, “Allah knows better what He means” has become the conventional answer to attempts at interpretation.

Here we do not intend to interpret or explain their meanings but we do intend to discuss the mathematical configuration of these openings based on the number 19, and thus show, if not why they are significant, then at least how significant they are.

Introducing Openings (Fawatih)

1.  Out of 114 Suras, there are 29 with letter openings. The ratio of the number of words in them to the number of words in the whole of the Holy Qur’an is approximately 48%.

2.  The total number of different openings is 14, consisting of 14 letters of the alphabet.

3. Out of these 29 Suras, the first to be revealed was Sura 29, which opens with the letter Noon (ن)=(N). This opening is not repeated. Sura 50 was revealed next, beginning with the letter Qaf (ق), which is also the beginning of Sura 42. The third revelation was Sura 38, beginning with the letter Sa’ad (ص)=(S'), which later began Suras 7 and 19. Thus, it is clear that the opening Noon (ن) which was revealed first occurred once; the opening Qaf (ق) which was revealed second occurred twice, while the opening Sa’ad (ص)=(S') which was revealed third occurred three times.

4.   There are one-letter openings: (ص ,ق , ن)= ( S', Q, N) which, as shown above, were the earliest revelations, and this has its significance. There are two-letter openings: (طه, يس, طس, حم)= ( TH, YS, TS, HM); there are three-letter openings: ( الم, الر, طسم)=( ALM, ALR, TSM); there are four-letter openings: (المص,المر)= (ALMS',ALMR), and there are five-letter openings: (كهيعص, حم عسق)=(KHY'AS', HM'ASQ).

5.   Openings can be classified on the basis of their frequency into:

A. Openings whose forms occur only once: المص, المر, كهيعص , طه, طس, يس, ص, حم عسق, ق, ن. = ALMS, ALMR, KHY'AS, TH, TS,YS, Sad, HM 'ASQ, Q, N.

B. Openings occuring more than once: الم, الر, طسم, حم = ALM, ALR, TSM, HM .

C. Some of the aforementioned openings occur as part of another opening, such as the opening (طس)=(TS) which occurs in (طسم)=(TSM); the opening (ص)=(S') occurs in (كهيعصand المص)=(KHY'AS' and ALMS'); and the opening (ق)=(Q) occurs in (حم عسق)=(HM'ASQ).

The Mathematical Configuration of Openings and their Suras:

Number 19 in the Configuration of Openings and their Suras

1.                1-  The first Sura of the 29 is Surat Al-Baqara and its order in the Mus’haf is two (i.e. It is the second Sura in the Qur’an). The last is Surat Al-Qalam, the 68^th Sura. Thus, the number of Suras from Baqara to Qalam is 67. This means that there are 38 Suras between Baqara and Qalam that do not open with luminous letters. (67-29=38, i.e. 19×2)

2.          2-        The openings are: الم, المص, الر, المر, كهيعص, طه, طسم, طس, يس, ص,  حم, حم عسق,  قand ن 

=      ALM, ALMS', ALR, ALMR, KHY'AS',TH,TSM, TS,YS, S', HM, HM 'ASQ, Q and N. The letter count in these openings is also 38, i.e. 19x2.  

        The four letter opening المر=ALMR contains the two openings,  الم=ALM and الر=ALR, and so does المص= ALMS which contains the openings الم=ALM  and ص = S. However, طسم=TSM contains only طس=TS because م= M is not an opening… and so on. Thus we observe that the occurrence of openings in the 29 Suras is 38, i.e. 19 x 2. Here is an illustration of that:

A. The opening الم= ALM occurs separately or as part of other openings in the following Suras: الم= ALM (Sura 2, ‘Al-Baqara’); الم (Sura 3, ‘Aal-I-Imran’);  المص= ALMS (Sura 7, ‘Al-A’raf’); المر= ALMR (Sura 13, ‘Ar-Ra’d’); الم (Sura 29, ‘Al-‘Ankabut’); الم (Sura 30, ‘Ar-Rum’); الم (Sura 31, ‘Luqman’); and  الم(Sura 32, ‘As-Sajda’). Thus, there is a total of 8 occurrences.

B. الر= ALR occurs singly or as part of another opening in the following Suras: الر= ALR (Sura 10, ‘Yunus’);  الر (Sura 11, ‘Hud’); الر(Sura 12, ‘Yusuf’); المر= ALMR (Sura 13, ‘Ar-Ra’d’); الر (Sura 14, ‘Ibrahim’) and الر(Sura 15, ‘Al-Hijr’). Thus, there are 6 occurences.

C.  The opening حم = HM occurs in: حم = HM (Sura 40, ‘Gafir’), حم (Sura 41, ‘Fussilat’), عسق  حم = HM 'ASQ(Sura 42, ‘Ash–Shura’), حم  (Sura 43, ‘Az-Zukhuf’),  حم(Sura 44, ‘Ad-Dhukan’), حم  (Sura 45, ‘Al- Jathiya’) and حم (Sura 46, ‘Al- Ahqaf’). Thus, the total is 7 occurrences.

D.طس = TS  occurs singly or as part of another opening in the following Suras