The Qur'an is a collection of the divine revelations that the prophet Muhammad received over a period of some twenty-two years, first in Makkah (or Mecca) and then in Yathrib, the city later called Madinah (or Medina). Both cities are located in an area known as the Hijaz in Southwest Arabia.

The Great Mosque with the Ka'bah of Makkah (Mecca), Saudi Arabia during the hajj

(Thanks to the ASMA Society for its contribution to the following information.)

The revelations to Muhammad form the essential scripture of Islam - essential in that only the Qur'an is given status as direct Divine Revelation, as opposed to other forms of guidance such as record of Muhammad's sayings, doings and opinions (known as Hadith), or similar records of other saintly figures of the Islamic tradition, both latter forms of guidance assumed to be coming from illumination, inspiration, intellection, or reason. The Qur'an was arranged into 114 sections (called 'Suras') by Muhammad under Divine Discretion - as it was recited recurrently in the presence of the Archangel Gabriel, who was the primary agent of transmission. In general, the longest sections can be found at the beginning, whereas the shortest surahs are contained near the end. This order of the sections is not a chronological arrangement, for the shorter chapters are among the earliest revelations. In fact, the very first revelation are verses 2-6 from Surah 96, Al-'Alaq ('The Clot').

Based on these revelations, the prophet Muhammad began preaching the word of God to the local tribes of Makkah from 610 CE onwards, asking that they return to the way of Abraham. This meant purifying ritual as well as the precincts of the Sacred Temple in which was found the Kaaba, a roughly two-story, cube-like structure, the foundations of which were considered to have been built by Abraham and his son Ishmael. This in turn meant removing the 360 or so idols which were worshipped as Divinities apart from the One God, as well as putting an end to many of the crass and hedonistic rituals commonplace at the site. Moreover, by extension, the ethic that projected from the call of Muhammad meant an end to many oppressive socio-political and economically exploitive practices that characterized Mecca at the time. After many setbacks, including multiple attempts on his life, Muhammad was directed to migrate to a town to the north, known now as Medina. There, he found a large following and returned triumphantly to Makkah, the city that became the nucleus of the new religion of Islam.