teaching as to the condition of the soul during the time between death and the Resurrection. The general belief of Moslems is that souls are kept somewhere—the good in peaceful repose, the bad and wicked in foul dungeons.
THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE KORAN
In its complete published form the Koran contains 114 chapters, or surahs, arranged in a seemingly haphazard manner. The subjects discussed in each chapter follow each other in no set form, nor in chronological order. The First Chapter—Surah 1—reads as follows:
In the name of the merciful and compassionate God.
Praise belongs to God, the Lord of the worlds, the merciful, the compassionate, the ruler of the day of judgment! Thee we serve and Thee we ask for aid. Guide us in the right path, the path of those to whom Thou art gracious, not of those with whom Thou art wroth; nor of those who err.
The next chapter—The Surah of the Heifer—is the longest in the Koran, comprising more than 13,000 words. It is followed by the apter (Surah) of Imram's Family, containing more than 7,000 words. The chapters thereafter grow smaller and smaller towards the end, until the last few chapters average between fifty and one hundred words each. The shortest chapter in the Koran is the 112th—The Surah of Unity—which reads as follows:
