The Quran

Preface

نَزَّلَ عَلَيكَ الكِتابَ بِالحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًا لِما بَينَ يَدَيهِ وَأَنزَلَ التَّوراةَ وَالإِنجيلَ

Yusuf Ali

It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel¹ (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion² (of judgment between right and wrong).

In some editions the break between verses 3 and 4 occurs here in the middle of the sentence, but in the edition of Hafiz 'Uthman, followed by the Egyptian Concordance Path al Raḥmān, the break occurs at the word Furqan. In versedivisions our classicists have mainly followed rhythm. As the word Furqan from this point of view is parallel to the word Intiq a m, which ends the next verse, I have accepted the verse-division at Furqan as more in consonance with Qur-ānic rhythm. It makes no real difference to the numbering of the verses, as there is only a question of whether one line should go into verse 3 or verse 4. (R).
Criterion: Furqan: for meaning see 2:53 n. 68,