The Qur'an is the Holy Book of Islam. It was revealed by God to the Prophet Mohammed word by word in the seventh century. The revelation began in 610 A.D. when Mohammed was asleep in Ramadan with a voice that said: "recite, recite, recite." Three verses were given to him at that time. From this point Mohammed believed himself to be the last of seven prophets starting with Abraham and with Jesus Christ being number six. He was responsible for getting God's final word out to the people. More verses were given to him at different times. He would repeat what he heard and his revelations would be memorized and written down by those who knew how to write. Mohammed would go into a trance when he would receive the revelations, but the people around him memorized everything he said. Some revelations he said came satan so he told his followers to remove those verses.

The word "qur'an" means recitation and the first verse of the Qur'an is the command to read. At that time very few people could actually read or write. Before the Prophet had been dead two years, Caliph Abu Bakr asked for all existing copies or parts of the Qur'an be brought to him. He put them together into what is now the authorized Qur'an. Some of those writings can be found in museums today. The Qur'an is about the same length as the New Testament. Most Muslims memorize the Qur'an and recite it during their daily prayers. It is organized in chapters called surahs, which are placed in order of length and not chronologically. Each surah is supposed to be a recitation.

The Qur'an's main theme is complete submission to the word and to the will of God and that there is only one God who is stern but forgiving.