There are seventy six (76) chapters, 513 sections and 5618 verses in the Holy Quran. Some of these Surahs have certain initials prefixed to them which are called the abbreviated letters. The details are given below:

S. No.	Surah No.	I N I T I A L S (Abb. Letters)
1	ii	ALIF, LAM, MIM
2	iii	ALIF, LAM, MIM
3	vii	ALIF, LAM, MIM, SAD
4	x	A L R
5	xi	A L R
6	xii	A L R
7	xiii	A L M R
8	xiv	A L R
9	xv	A L R
10	xix	KAF, HA, YA, AIN, SAD
11	xx	TA HA
12	xxvi	TA SIN MIM
13	xxvii	TA SIN
14	xxviii	TA SIN MIM
15	xxix	A L M
16	xxx	A L M
17	xxxi	A L M
18	xxxii	A L M
19	xxxvi	YA SIN
20	xxxviii	SAD
21	xl	HA MIM
22	xli	HA MIM
23	xlii	HA MIM AIN SIN RAF
24	xliii	HA MIM
25	xliv	HA MIM
26	xlv	HA MIM
27	xlvi	HA MIM
28	l	RAF
29	lxviii	NUN

A Number of conjectures have been made as to their meanings. Opinions are divided as to the exact meaning of each particular letter or combination of letters. It is only agreed that Allah alone knows their exact meaning.

One school of thought feels that Arabs, during the pre-Islamic period were already using these mystic syllables and they were found to be effective and fruitful. Hence even during the post Islamic period, they were continued to be used.

According the commentator of the Holy Quran, published by the Government of Saudi Arabia, their presence is not inconsistent with the character of the Quran as a plain book. The book of nature is also a plain book, but few can fully understand it. Everyone can get out of the Quran plain guidance for his life according to his capacity for spiritual understanding. As his capacity grows, so will his understanding. The whole book is a record for all times and it must necessarily contain meanings that only gradually unfold themselves to humanity in course of time. If we are asked to believe that certain initials have a meaning which will be understood in the fullness of time, we are asked to draw upon faith, but we are not asked to do violence to our reasons.

One such probable conjecture is as follows:

There are 29 letters in the Arabic alphabet (counting Hamza and Alif as two letters) and there are 29 Surahs which have abbreviated letters prefixed to them. If we take half of the alphabets omitting the fraction, we get 14 and that is the number of letters that actually occur in the MUQUATTAAT.

The probable meaning of certain combination of letters are as follows: TA HA - Oh Man.

YA SIN - Usually treated as a title of the Holy Prophet.

HA MIM They are prefixed to seven successive surahs. Chronologically they all belong the same period i.e. later Makkan period. They immediately follow the last surah in time. The ground theme of the whole series is the relation of faith to unfaith, revelation to rejection, goodness to evil, truth to falsehood. It is shown that the first of each of these pairs is the real friend, helper and protector of many, while the second is the enemy. The very word, HA MIM in that sense isused in the surahs xi andxli.

NUN - It may mean a fish or an ink holder or it may be just the Arabic letter of the alphabet N.

Thus we are in the threshold of understanding the meaning of the abbreviated letters prefixed to the 29 surahs of the Holy Quran. By no means we can conclude that these are the final words on this subject.