Al-Dānī—may Allah be pleased with him—said:
“All of these reports show that placing the decadal and quinquennial markers, the sūrah headings, and the end-of-verse signs was the work of the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—undertaken on the basis of their own ijtihād. In my view, the only thing those who objected to it, whether from among the Companions or others, actually disliked was the use of coloured inks such as red, yellow, and the like. As for what they unanimously adopted, no blame and no error attach to them in it, Allah willing.

Section

With regard to the number of its letters and its divisions, Salām Abū Muḥammad al-Himmanī related that al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf assembled the reciters, memorizers, and scribes and said, ‘Inform me: how many letters are there in the entire Qur’an?’ I was among them, and when we calculated, we concurred that the Qur’an contains three hundred and forty-thousand, seven-hundred and forty letters.

He then asked, ‘Up to which letter does half of the Qur’an extend?’ It was found to be in Sūrat al-Kahf, at the fāʾ of the phrase “and let him be courteous” (wa-l-yatalaṭṭaf, 18:19).

He went on, ‘Tell me its thirds.’ We determined that the first third ends at the head of verse one hundred of Sūrat al-Tawbah; the second third at the head of verse one hundred—or one hundred and one—of the sūrah that opens with Ṭā Sīn Mīm, namely al-Shuʿarāʾ; and the final third is what remains thereafter.

He next said, ‘Tell me its sevenths, letter by letter.’ Thus: the first seventh falls in Sūrat al-Nisāʾ at the phrase “Among them are those who believe in it and among them are those who turn away” (4:55), ending at the letter dāl; the second seventh in al-Aʿrāf at “their deeds have come to naught” (ḥabiṭat, 7:147), ending at the tāʾ; the third seventh in al-Raʿd at “its produce is everlasting” (ukuluhā dāʾim, 13:35), ending at the final alif; the fourth seventh in al-Ḥajj at “For every community We have appointed a rite” (22:34), ending at the alif; the fifth seventh in al-Aḥzāb at “It is not for a believing man or a believing woman” (33:36), ending at the hāʾ; the sixth seventh in al-Fatḥ at “those who harbour evil thoughts about Allah” (48:6), ending at the wāw; and the seventh seventh comprises the remainder of the Qur’an.

Salām Abū Muḥammad added: ‘We also divided it into four quarters (ashbār), and al-Ḥajjāj would recite one quarter each night. The first quarter begins with the closing passage of al-Anʿām; the second at the phrase “and let him be courteous” in al-Kahf; the third at the close of al-Zumar; and the fourth is whatever remains of the Qur’an. There are, however, differing opinions on this whole scheme which Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī has set out in detail in his Kitāb al-Bayān; whoever wishes to examine them will find them there.’

Section

As for the total number of verses according to the first Madinan tradition, Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā said, ‘The Madinans reckon the Qur’an to consist of six thousand verses.’ ʿAmr remarked, ‘This is the figure that the Kufans report from the people of Madinah, though they name no specific individual to whom they attribute the report.’