Pattern of Even and Odd Numbers in the Quran

nsabah Numerical Miraculousness, Supplements

Nassir H. Sabah

The only mention of even and odd numbers in the Quran is as an oath by God Almighty in Verse 3, Chapter 89: “By the even and the odd” وَٱلشَّفْعِ وَٱلْوَتْرِ. The conventional interpretation is that it’s a reference to the daily prayers, which have an even number of cycles except for the sunset prayer which has an odd number. A mystical interpretation is that even refers to all creation, which was created in pairs (Q51:49), and odd refers to God as The One and Only.

Some amazing numerical patterns on odd and even numbers have been reported in the relevant literature, such as the following:

  1. Concatenating the chapter and verse numbers of Verse 3, Chapter 89, with the verse number, representing the smaller unit, the verse, on the right, gives 893 = 47×19 = (28 + 19)x19, where 19 is a mystical number and 28 = 4×7 is a multiple of the mystical number 7 and is also a perfect number that is equal to the sum of its proper divisors: 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28.
  2. 60 chapters in the Quran have an even number of verses and 54 have an odd number of verses. Referring to a list of prime numbers, such as: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prime_numbers, the 54th prime number is 251 and the 60th is 281. The sum of these two numbers is 532 = 28´19, where 28 and 19 have the significance mentioned in item (1) above.
  3. The first counted verse of the Quran, the basmalah, is traditionally inserted at the beginning of every chapter except Chapter 9 but is not counted in the 6236 numbered verses. If these 112 additional basmalahs are counted, the numbers of chapters having even and odd number of verses become 52 and 62 , respectively. The corresponding 52nd and 62nd prime numbers are 239 and 293, which again sum to 532 = 28×19, the same as in item (2) above. It seems that the tradition of not counting the 112 basmalahs at the beginning of chapters is inherent to the divine Quranic revelation.
  4. If the numerals of the first set of two primal numbers formed in item (2) above are added, the sum is: 2 + 5 +1 + 2 + 8 + 1 = 19, and if the numerals of the second set of two primal numbers formed in item (3) above are added, the sum is: 2 + 3 + 9 + 2 + 9 + 3 = 28, where 19 and 28 are the two non-trivial divisor of 532 in items (2) and (3) above, which is amazing!
  5. Another amazing numerical pattern of even and odd numbers is provided by the number of chapters and verses of the Quran, as indicated in the table below in which the numbers of chapters of the Quran from 1 to 114 are listed in the first column. The sum of these numbers is 6555, which is a multiple of 19, just like 114, the number of chapters. The second column is the count of the numbered verses in each chapter, which add up to 6236, the count of the numbered verses of the Quran. The numbers in the first two columns are added, row by row. If the sum is even, it is entered in the same row in the third column. If the sum is odd, it is entered in the same row in the fourth column. It’s interesting that the third and fourth columns have 57 entries each. But what is truly amazing is that the sum of all entries in the third column is again 6236, and the sum of all the entries in the fourth column is again 6555, as in the second and first columns, respectively.

Is all this pure coincidence or is it a verification of the counts of the number of chapters and numbered verses in the Quran? If the latter, can it be of human design with any reasonable degree of certainty?

Number of chapters Number of verses Sum of first two columns
Even sum Odd sum
1 7 8
2 286 288
3 200 203
4 176 180
5 120 125
6 165 171
7 206 213
8 75 83
9 129 138
10 109 119
11 123 134
12 111 123
13 43 56
14 52 66
15 99 114
16 128 144
17 111 128
18 110 128
19 98 117
20 135 155
21 112 133
22 78 100
23 118 141
24 64 88
25 77 102
26 227 253
27 93 120
28 88 116
29 69 98
30 60 90
31 34 65
32 30 62
33 73 106
34 54 88
35 45 80
36 83 119
37 182 219
38 88 126
39 75 114
40 85 125
41 54 95
42 53 97
43 89 132
44 59 103
45 37 82
46 35 81
47 38 85
48 29 77
49 18 67
50 45 95
51 60 111
52 49 101
53 62 115
54 55 109
55 78 133
56 96 152
57 29 86
58 22 80
59 24 83
60 13 73
61 14 75
62 11 73
63 11 74
64 18 82
65 12 77
66 12 78
67 30 97
68 52 120
69 52 121
70 44 114
71 28 99
72 28 100
73 20 93
74 56 130
75 40 115
76 31 107
77 50 127
78 40 118
79 46 125
80 42 122
81 29 110
82 19 101
83 36 119
84 25 109
85 22 107
86 17 103
87 19 106
88 26 114
89 30 119
90 20 110
91 15 106
92 21 113
93 11 104
94 8 102
95 8 103
96 19 115
97 5 102
98 8 106
99 8 107
100 11 111
101 11 112
102 8 110
103 3 106
104 9 113
105 5 110
106 4 110
107 7 114
108 3 111
109 6 115
110 3 113
111 5 116
112 4 116
113 5 118
114 6 120
6555 6236 6236 6555