For the very first article I am writing on “Daily Wonders,” I wanted to begin with a topic that almost chooses itself. And what could be more natural than opening the Qur’an to its first page and reading its very first verse — its first “sentence”?

This is what we encounter: a declaration overflowing with Mercy.

بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

What is immediately striking about this opening declaration is that Allah — God — is described here through two of His Divine Names: ar-Rahman (ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ) and ar-Rahim (ٱلرَّحِيمِ). Both Names come from the same Arabic root: the root of Rahmah, or Mercy.

So here is the simple idea.

Take the three-letter Arabic root for Mercy — Ra-Ha-Mim (ر ح م) — which, as we have just seen, appears twice in the very first sentence (!) of the Qur’an. Then use it as the starting point for an unapologetically “mechanical” analysis: count the frequency of words derived from this root — verbs, adjectives, nouns, and so on — across the Qur’an.

That modest exercise turns out to reveal findings that are anything but modest: a series of sweet numerical wonders, each one inviting us to pause, cherish, and stand in awe.

Let’s begin.

All the statistics and counts mentioned below are taken from the publicly available, open-source Quranic Arabic Corpus project.

First: Some Key Facts from the Corpus

The Corpus page for the root Rā-Hā-Mīm contains a great deal of information, but the short summary at the top of the page is already more than enough to reveal some remarkable numerical wonders.

Let us begin with the basic facts.

The root Rā-Hā-Mīm (ر ح م) occurs 339 times in the Qur’an, across nine forms.

Four forms account for the overwhelming bulk — 93% — of the total:

Raḥmat (رَحْمَة): 114 times — infinitive: “Mercy”

Raḥmān (رَحْمَٰن): 57 times — noun/adjective: “The Most Compassionate”

Raḥīm (رَّحِيم): 116 times — noun/adjective: “The Most Merciful”

Raḥima (رَحِمَ): 28 times — verb: “to have/bestow mercy”

Some eagle-eyed readers may already see where this is going. But let us wait for a moment and add one more very famous fact.

The Qur’an has 114 chapters. Yes: 114.

Now return to the list above. What do you see?