Qur'an

Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem In the name of Allah the Merciful the Compassionate

click on image

The Qur'an is the sacred book of all Muslims. It was revealed in stages to the prophet Muhammad (may the prayer of Allah (God) and peace be upon him)over a period of 23 years from the year 610 AD to 633 AD through the agency of the angel Jibreel (Gabriel) may peace be upon him.
It is composed of 112 Surahs or chapters each made up of a number of Ayats or signs or verses.
It was revealed in Arabic and remains now to this day exactly in its original form, the actual words of Allah (God). As such it is referred to by Muslims on a daily basis for guidance on all matters for this world and beyond.
It is a religious duty for Muslims to learn as much of it as they are able and to do so in Arabic, but because many Muslims are not Arab by origin or do not have Arabic as their native language, it is permissable to render it for learning purposes into other languages. Every effort is made by translators to be as faithful as possible to the original, however all accept that their translations can only approximate to the Qur'an itself.

Al Qur'an al Kareem The generous or bountiful Qur'an

click on image

There are now quite a number of such 'translations' in English and some of these are available on the internet.
By clicking on:

www.quranbrowser.org

you can access several such 'translations' alongside one another and also be able to search the Qur'an by word and phrase which is very useful for study purposes.

In addition it is possible now to listen to Qur'an being recited correctly online which is very helpful for all people wishing to learn or understand it and also to be able to appreciate its beauty.
If you click on:

audioquraan.com/quraan.asp

you can listen to various recitations of the Qur'an Surah by Surah and
if you click on:

www.multimediaquran.com

you will be able to listen to one such recitation line by line and surah by surah.
In addition this site offers the chance to begin to learn Quranic Arabic as well.

It should be remembered that as Muslims we believe the Qur'an to be the actual revealed Word or words of Allah and therefore as the Qur'an itself enjoins we make wudu (wash in the prescribed manner) before consulting, reading or reciting it. In addition Allah states in the Qur'an that we should take leave of the Shaytan (devil) before doing any of these.
To be clean before God is essential and therefore anyone should be clean and wash their hands as a minimum before reading a copy of the Qur'an.