Āya

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Āya , pl. Āyāt ( Arabic آية, DMG Āya pl.آيات, DMG Āyāt "sign", "verse"), is generally called a verse in a sura in the Koran . The basic meaning of the word is “sign”, “miracle” or “proof”. These are signs in nature in which God's power is manifested, events whose author is a prophet, and signs - past and future - which a prophet communicates as a revelation from God. The word is with the ambiguous Hebrew Ot (אות, "Characters" or "letters").

Symbol to mark the end of a Āya

The so-called “ throne verse ” ( āyat al-kursī , sura 2, verse 255) and the “ light verse ” ( āyat an-nūr , sura 24, verse 35), which are also often depicted in Arabic calligraphy , are of particular importance be studied extensively in Sufism (Islamic mysticism).

The number of verses is not always the same. The most common today is the Kufic count, which is also used in the Kairin edition of the Koran from 1924. But there are various others, of which mostly only the Basric and Medinan are in use today. The oldest Koran codes contain no verse at all. According to Kufic counting, the Koran contains 6,236 Āyāt. But there are also other counts.

The length of the individual Āyāt is very different: The longest Āya ( Sura 2 : 282) comprises more than 100 words, while the first Āya of Sura Tā-Hā (Sura 20: 1) consists of only two mysterious letters . The second sura has the longest sura 286 Āyāt, the suras al-ʿAsr , al-Kauthar and an-Nasr have the lowest number of verses with three Āyāt each. The end of a verse is indicated in the Koran with the glyph ۝.

The word Āya is also part of the religious title Ayatollah .

See also

literature

  • Anton Spitaler : The counting of the Koran according to Islamic tradition. Publishing house of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich 1935, ( session reports of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-historical department, year 1935, issue 11).
  • W. Montgomery Watt: Bell's Introduction to the Qur'ān. Completely revised and enlarged. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1970, ISBN 0-85224-171-2 , ( Islamic surveys 8).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ W. Montgomery Watt: Bell's Introduction to the Qur'ān. Pp. 121-123; 126-127
  2. ^ Encyclopedia Judaica , Volume 10, p. 1195
  3. ↑ Anton Spitaler: The counting of the Koran , passim
  4. ↑ cf. List of special numbers ; or Koran