Quran recited just before it is made. There are altogether 557 Rukuat. (7). The other divisions are not important. They are, a _Sumn_, _Ruba'_, _Nisf_, _Suls_, that is one-eighth, one-fourth, one-half, one-third of a Sipara respectively. In reciting the Quran the worshipper must be careful to say the "Takbir," _i.e._ "God is great," after the several appointed places. Such a place is after the recital of the 93rd Sura. The custom arose in this way. The hypocrites came to the Prophet and asked him to relate the story of the "Seven Sleepers." He said: "I will tell you to-morrow;" but he forgot to add the words "if God will." By way of warning, God allowed no inspiration to descend upon him for some days. Then the hypocrites began to laugh and say: "God has left him." As it was not God's purpose to put his messenger to ridicule, the Sura entitled "The brightness" (xciii) was immediately brought by the ever-ready Gabriel. It begins: "By the brightness of the morning, and by the night when it groweth dark, _thy Lord hath not forsaken thee_, neither doth He hate thee." In remembrance of this signal interposition of Providence on his behalf, the Prophet always concluded the recital of this Sura with the words: "God is great." The practice thus became a "Sunnat" obligation; that is, it should be done because the Prophet did it. The doctrine of abrogation is a very important one in {59} connection with the study of the Quran. It is referred to in the verses: "Whatever verses we cancel or cause thee to forget, we give thee better in their stead, or the like thereof." (Sura ii. 100). This is a Madina Sura. "What He pleaseth will God abrogate or confirm; for with Him is the source of revelation." (Sura xiii. 39). Some verses which were cancelled in the Prophet's life-time are not now extant. Abdullah Ibn Masud states that the Prophet one day recited a verse, which he immediately wrote down. The next morning he found it had vanished from the material on which it had been written. Astonished at this, he acquainted Muhammad with the fact, and was informed that the verse in question had been revoked. There are, however, many verses still in the Quran, which have been abrogated. It was an exceedingly convenient doctrine, and one needed to explain the change of front which Muhammad made at different periods of his career. Certain rules have been laid down to regulate the practice. The verse which abrogates is called _Nusikh_, and the abrogated verse _Mansukh_. _Mansukh_ verses are of three kinds:--first, where the words and the sense have both been abrogated; secondly, where the letter only is abrogated and the sense remains; thirdly, where the sense is abrogated though the letter remains. Imam Malik gives as an instance of the first kind the verse: "If a son of Adam had two rivers of gold, he would covet yet a third; and if he had three he would covet yet a fourth. Neither shall the belly of a son of Adam be filled, but with dust.