Aya

A verse of the Qur’an, (pl. ayat). It is the smallest semantically independent Qur’anic speech. The word aya occurs in Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac, and is often translated as a sign. The word also refers to miracles, as in the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary (Q19:21); and wonders of nature as signs of God’s power in the universe (see, e.g. Q 30:20-25). The number of ayat (verses) differs from one sura to another. An individual verse may be just a single word or long passages; the longest aya in the Qur’an is the verse known as al-Dayn ‘the Debt’, Q 2: 282.