Sura 30: A.L.M. الم

A + L + M = 543* + 394* + 317 = 1254 = 19 x 66

*Note: Sura 30: Alif and Lam Counts

The counts above for Sura 30 while still maintaining the same total as presented by Dr. Rashad Khalifa, differ in that the above counts have one less Alif and one more Lam than presented by his findings.

In his book "The Computer Speaks", it indicated that Sura 30 verse 21 has only seven Lams, rather than 8, except this could not be confirmed with existing manuscripts. Additionally, linguistically it is not likely that the Lam count in this verse should be seven. Therefore, it is speculated that the Lam counts for this specific verse is most likely an error.

Dr. Khalifa emphasized that the important aspect of this publication was the final counts, and that the final counts were divinely orchestrated. For instance, the printout from his book, "The Computer Speaks" shows the number of occurrences of the word Allah (God) in the Quran, except it accidentally included one occurrence from 9:129 while missing one of the two occurrences in 9:15; thus still providing the correct total value of 2,698 (19x142). Additionally, it indicated that 10:58 has 5 Lams, rather than 6, but still provided the correct total of 913 Lams in the Sura. From these two examples, we see that while there were small errors in the individual counts the total counts were still correct.

Therefore, it is possible that Dr. Khalifa's Lam counts for Sura 30 is correct and that the manuscripts of the Quran that are in circulation today have one extra Lam than they should. Additionally, there exists precedent of existing words in the Quran written with different numbers of Lams. Based on this idea, each word in Sura 30 that could theoretically be written with one less Lam without impacting the grammar, recitation, or meaning was identified. Then a thorough process of checking manuscripts to see if any of the earliest mus'hafs wrote any of these words with one less Lam was conducted. To date, a manuscript showing a different Lam count was not found.