Book excerpt: Book Of Allah ( AL QURAN AL KARIM or The Holy Quran ) The Quran ( Arabic القُرْآن, al-Qurʾān, "the recitation" ) is the sacred text of Islam . For Muslims, it takes verbatim the word of God ( Allah ). This book is to this day the first and oldest authentic literary document known in Arabic; Muslim tradition presents it as the first work in Arabic, with the specific character of inimitability in beauty and in ideas. For Muslims, the Koran groups together the words of God, revelations ( āyāt ) made to the last prophet and messenger of God Muhammad ( محمد, Muḥammad, "the praised") from 610-612 until his death in 632 by l ' archangel Gabriel ( جبريل, jibril ). The Koran is sometimes called simply al-kitāb ("the Book"), adh-dhikr ("the Reminder") or al-furqān ("the Discernment"). In this sense, it is, for Muslims, the expression of an uncreated attribute of God addressed to the intention of all humanity .