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The Qur'an or "the Reading" is the Muslim scripture. It is the Word of God as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel in the seventh-century. Preserved in a fixed written form, the Qur'an consists of one hundred and fourteen sections of varying length. Each section is called sura and has its own title. Each sura is divided into numbered verses (ayat). A short sura or a few verses are recited in daily prayers.

This Qur'an manuscript was copied by a calligrapher named Ahmed in naskh script. Naskh uses smaller and more rounded characters than other types of Arabic scripts and plays on diagonal thrusts. By tradition the first two pages of a Qur'an are always decorated. Abdullah Ibn Mostafa, the illuminator of this copy, has magnificently framed the first two pages.

Right page: "The Opening" Sura (al-Fatiha), a prayer recited by Muslims in their daily rituals -- in their canonical prayers (salat), to confirm a contract or a marriage, and at tombs of relatives and saints. It translates as follows:

1. In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful.
2. ALL PRAISE Be to Allah Lord of all worlds,
3. Most beneficent, ever-merciful,
4. King of the Day of Judgement.
5. You alone we worship, and to You alone turn for help.
6. Guide us (O Lord) to the path that is straight,
7. The path of those You have blessed, not of those who have earned Your anger, nor those who have gone astray.

Left page: the first few verses of Surat Al-Baqara (The Cow). It is about the Qur'an and translates as follows:

In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful.

1. ALIF LAM MIM.
2. This is The Book free of doubt and involution, a guidance for those who preserve themselves from evil and follow the straight path,
3. Who believe in the Unknown and fulfil their devotional obligations, and spend in charity of what We have given them;
4. Who believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed to those before you, and are certain of the Hereafter.

N.B. Apparently opinions differ as to whether "In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful" (the Bismillah) is to be numbered as a separate verse or not. The edition of Abdullah Yusuf 'Ali gives it a verse number where it appears at the head of the first Surah, but not at the head of subsequent surahs.