Sura - Names of Suras in The Quran

Names of Suras in The Quran

The verses and suras when revealed to Muhammad in the Quran did not come with a label attached to them. Muhammad, as we find in many hadith, used to refer to shorter suras not by name, rather by their first verse. For example: Abu Hurairah quoted Muhammad as saying, "Al-Hamdu Lillahi Rabb il-`Aalameen is the Mother of the Qur'an, the Mother of the Book, and the seven repeated Ayat of the Glorious Qur'an." (Tirmidhi). We also find hadith in which Muhammad used to refer to them by their name. For example, 'Abdullah bin Buraydah narrated from his father, "I was sitting with the Prophet and I heard him say, 'Learn Surat ul-Baqarah, because in learning it there is blessing, in ignoring it there is sorrow, and the sorceresses cannot memorize it."' (Ahmad ibn Hanbal)

Arab tradition, similar to other tribal cultures of that time, was to name things according to their unique characteristics. They used this same method to name suras. Most sura names are found in hadith. Some suras were named according to their central theme, such as Al-Fatiha (The Opener) and Yusuf (Joseph), and some were named for the first word at the beginning of the sura, such as Qaf, Ya Sin, and ar-Rahman. Some suras were also named according to a unique story or topic within the sura, such as al-Baqara (The Cow), An-Nur (The Light), while other suras were named according to a unique word used in them, such as Az-Zukhruf (The Ornaments of Gold), Al-Hadid (The Iron), and Al-Ma'un (The Small Kindness).

Most names of the suras are still used to this day. Several are known by multiple names: sura Al-Masadd (The Palm Fibre) is also known as al-Lahab (The Flame). Sura Fussilat (Explained in Detail) is also known as Ha-Meem Sajda ("...it is a surah that begins with Ha Mim and in which a verse requiring the performance of sajdah (prostration) has occurred.")