The fourfold division of the Qurʾān
الطُّوَل والمِئون والمثاني والمفصَّلAn early way of describing the whole Qurʾān in four portions.
Before juzʾ numbers were in common use, the Qurʾān was described in these four portions by length. It is worth knowing because the older books, and several ḥadīth, speak in these terms rather than in juzʾ and ḥizb.
The Wāthilah report is graded weak by a number of ḥadīth scholars and acceptable by others. It is included here as the origin of the naming, not as a basis for any practice or reward.
How it is divided
Aṭ-Ṭiwāl — the long
Al-Baqarah to at-Tawbah
The seven long sūrahs.
Al-Miʾūn — the hundreds
Roughly Yūnus onwards
Sūrahs of around a hundred āyāt or more.
Al-Mathānī — the repeated
The sūrahs following the miʾūn
Named for being recited and repeated often, coming after the hundreds.
Al-Mufaṣṣal — the frequently separated
Qāf or al-Ḥujurāt to an-Nās
The closing portion.
Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ reports the Prophet ﷺ saying he was given the seven long in place of the Tawrāh, the miʾūn in place of the Injīl, the mathānī in place of the Zabūr, and was favoured with the mufaṣṣal.
— Musnad Aḥmad 4:107; aṭ-Ṭabarānī, al-Muʿjam al-KabīrAl-Suyūṭī records the fourfold division among the recognised ways the early community portioned the Qurʾān.
— Al-Suyūṭī, al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān
What runs through all of them
A map of the whole
Four portions, ordered by length, giving a sense of the shape of the muṣḥaf before you open it.
The older vocabulary
Tafsīr and ḥadīth literature use these names freely. Knowing them makes the classical books readable.
Words that keep returning
مِئُون
miʾūn · root م أ ي
the hundreds
مَثَانِي
mathānī · root ث ن ي
the repeated ones, folded back over
Take this with you
- Four portions by length: ṭiwāl, miʾūn, mathānī, mufaṣṣal.
- This is an orientation tool, not a practice — no recitation habit hangs on it.
- The ḥadīth naming the four is disputed; the division itself is well recorded in the sciences of the Qurʾān.
Check what stayed with you
Answer from memory. That one moment of recall is what makes it stay.
What are the four portions in the old division of the Qurʾān?
Move sideways