The Quran is the central, divinely-revealed text of Islam. Muslims, who are followers of Islam, firmly believe that the Quran is the literal word of God. The Quran is said to have been recited by Muhammad from God himself through the angel Gabriel. The word Quran literally means recitation. These divinely bequeathed messages to humanity began with the revelations to the biblical Adam, Moses in the Torah, David in his Book of Psalms and Jesus in the Gospels. According to Islamic belief, the Quran is the final revelatory message from God to humankind.

Muhammad is said to have begun receiving his first revelation from the archangel Gabriel in the cave of Hira during one of his solitary, meditative retreats in the mountains around Mecca. Muhammed continued to receive revelations over the course of the next twenty-three years from the angel Gabriel. After some time, the oral Quran was written down on date palm fronds, bones and tablets as it was recited by followers of Muhammed. This was the first written form of the Quran. The first book form of the Quran is dated at approximately 650 BCE when Uthman ibn Affan ordered that an official, standardized version of the sacred text be put into a written volume.

The Quran consists of 114 chapters of various lengths. These chapters are known as suras. The Quran is considered by Muslims to be a book of great wisdom and guidance in daily living. The text values the lessons and morals of the story over the chronological order of the narrative itself. Reciting portions of the Quran is one of the core practices of Islam and is one of the primary forms of Islamic prayer, or salat. Through the recitation of his divine revelations, Muhammad offers Muslims a profound and comprehensive set of lessons and rules on how to live life in accordance with the laws of God.