Surah Al-Baqarah — 2:1

Reflection

Twenty-nine surahs open with disconnected letters, and this set comes first among them in the order of the mushaf. Commentators have offered abbreviations of divine names, oath-formulas, and a challenge issued in the plain letters Arabic itself is built from, and the tradition has kept all of these open rather than settling on one. Placement is observable without any of that: a mention of the Book follows almost every such set immediately, as it does here.