How many ayas are in the Quran? Words? Leters? is bismillah an ayah?
There is a difference of opinion regarding the Aayaats, words and letters of the Qur’aan. The difference came about because at times one statement is spread over 2 Aayaats and some have counted them to be one. Similarly, some letters of the Qur’aan are silent and not verbally pronounced at the time of recitation. At the time of counting the letters, some counted them as well, whilst others only counted the letters that are pronounced. At times, two words may look like one word, and it is only counted as one word. Some have considered prepositions coming with verbs/nouns to be one word whilst others counted each one separately.
There are approximately 6 thousand and 2 hundred Aayaats in the Qur’aan. (Manaahilul Irfaan vol.1 pg.277; Beirut)
According to Attaa ibn Yaasir [ra], there are seventy seven thousand four hundred and thirty nine words in the Qur’aan and three hundred and thirty two thousand and fifteen letters. (Tafseer al-Qurtubi vol.1 pg.81; Cairo)
and Allah Ta’ala Knows Best
Mufti Ebrahim Desai