The text of the Holy Quran contains additional marks at the beginning and end of certain verses, which give information on the structure of the text and on recitation. These verse marks are shown in Figure 1:
|sajdah - indicates prostration when reciting a verse|
|rubʿ l-hizb - marks the start of a quarter hizb|
|marks the end of a numbered verse|
Fig 1. Verse marks.
The sajdah mark occurs 15 times in the Quran, and is shown at the end of a verse between the last word and the verse number. This mark indicates performing sajdat l-tilāwah (the prostration of recitation). The mark occurs at the end of the following verses:
Fig 2. The prostration of recitation.
The Quran is divided into 114 chapters, each of different length. The text is also divided into 30 sections known as juz of roughly equal length. A juz is further divided into two hizb, giving a total of 60 hizb in the Quran. The sign rubʿ l-hizb is shown at the start of verses in the Quran which mark the beginning of one quarter hizb.
Each chapter of the Quran consists of a sequence of numbered verses. The end of each verse is marked with its number, after the last word in that verse.