Quran Universe

Guess the Surah

Read the ayah, open a hint if you need one, and name its surah. Start with the short surahs you pray with and climb to the whole Quran. A new daily verse unlocks every day.

How to play

  1. Read the verse in Arabic, with its English meaning underneath, and decide which surah it comes from.
  2. In the first levels you choose from a few surah cards. From level 21 you type any of the 114 names, with suggestions as you type.
  3. Stuck? Open a hint: where it was revealed, its juz, the length of the surah, the meaning of its name, its first letter, and finally the verse before or after it. Each hint costs a few points.
  4. A wrong guess tells you how close you are and whether the answer comes earlier or later in the Quran.
  5. Each level has three to five verses. Score well for three stars; every surah you name joins your collection of 114. Levels get harder as you go: more choices, fewer free hints, less famous verses and, at the end, no translation.
  6. The daily verse gives everyone the same ayah, six guesses and a new hint after each miss.

Tips for guessing which surah a verse is from

Read the style first. Makkan verses tend to be short and rhythmic, and speak about the oneness of Allah, the Day of Judgment and the stories of earlier prophets. Madinan verses are often longer and deal with law, family, fasting, war and the hypocrites, and they often address “O you who have believed.”

Listen for refrains. Some surahs repeat one line. “So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny?” appears 31 times in Ar-Rahman. “Woe, that Day, to the deniers” repeats through Al-Mursalat, and “Indeed in that is a sign, but most of them were not to be believers” closes each story in Ash-Shu’ara.

Use the order of the Quran. Long Madinan surahs come first and the short Makkan ones gather at the end in Juz Amma. Start in the middle with a guess around 50 to 60, then follow the arrows.

Names and stories narrow it down. A verse about Yusuf and his brothers points to Surah Yusuf, the sleepers in the cave to Al-Kahf, and Maryam and the birth of Isa to Surah Maryam.

The Quran in numbers

Surahs
114
Verses
6,236
Makkan surahs
86
Madinan surahs
28
Longest
Al-Baqarah · 286
Shortest
Al-'Asr · 3

Want to study before you play? Browse all 114 surahs with translation, word-by-word meaning and tafsir, or start with Ayatul Kursi, the greatest verse in the Quran.

Frequently asked questions

What is Guess the Surah?

Guess the Surah is a free Quran quiz game. You read a verse in Arabic with its English meaning and name the surah it comes from. The journey has 60 levels in six chapters, from Juz Amma and Al-Fatihah to the whole Quran, and there is also one daily verse that everyone plays with six guesses.

How many surahs are in the Quran?

The Quran has 114 surahs and 6,236 verses. 86 surahs are Makkan, revealed before the Hijrah, and 28 are Madinan. The longest is Al-Baqarah with 286 verses and the shortest is Al-'Asr with 3.

When does a new puzzle start?

A new verse unlocks every day at midnight in your own time zone. Everyone who plays on the same date gets the same verse, so you can compare results with friends.

Can I play more than once a day?

Yes. The daily verse is one puzzle a day, but the journey levels can be played and replayed at any time. After the daily verse you can also practise with random verses; practice does not change your daily result.

Which English translation does the game use?

Every verse is shown in the original Arabic with the Sahih International translation under it. In the last chapters the translation becomes a hint you can open. Every answer links to the full verse with Tafsir Ibn Kathir.

Is it respectful to play a game with the Quran?

The game is a way to learn the Quran better. The verse is always shown complete and unaltered, nothing in the game makes fun of it, and every round ends with a link to read the verse in context with its tafsir.

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