The Furqan

S 2:53 And when we gave Musa the Book and the Furqan; perhaps you will be guided.

S 2:185 The month of Ramadan wherein the Quran was sent down, a guidance for people and proofs of the guidance and the Furqan. So he among you who has witnessed the month, let him fast on it, and he who was ill or on a journey, then an ‘iddah of other days. Allah wants ease for you and does not want hardship for you, and that you complete the ‘iddah and magnify Allah for what he has guided you; and perhaps you will thank.

S 3:4 Before, guidance for people, and he sent down the Furqan. Those who have disbelieved in Allah’s verses have severe torture. And Allah is mighty, the one of vengeance.

S 8:29 Those who have believed, if you fear Allah he will make a furqan for you and atone your evil deeds for you and forgive you. And Allah is the possessor of the great favour.

S 8:41 And know that what you have plundered of a thing, that Lah’s is a fifth of it and the messenger’s and the relatives’ and the orphans’ and the needy ones’ and the traveller’s, if you believe in Allah and what we sent down upon our slave on the day of the Furqan, on a day the two crowds met. And Allah is mighty over everything.

S 21:48 And we gave Musa and Harun the Furqan and a brightness and a dhikr for the fearers.

S 25:1 Blessed be the one who sent down the Furqan upon his slave that he may be a nadhir to the ‘alamin,

So what exactly is a furqan? What was the furqan given to Musa and Harun and what was the furqan that Allah might make and what was the day of the Furqan?

The word appears to be of Aramaic origin meaning 'deliverance' or 'redemption'.

Arthur Jeffery in his The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an states:

"The form of the word would suggest that it is genuine Arabic, a form فعلان {fu'lan} from فرق {faraqa}, and thus it is taken by the Muslim authorities. Tab. on ii, 50, says that Scripture is called Furqān because God فرق به بين الحق والباطل, and as referring to Badr it means the day when God discriminated (فرق) between the good party and the evil (Rāghib, Mufradāt, 385). In this latter case it is tempting to think of Jewish influence, for in the account of Saul's victory over the Ammonites in 1 Sam. xi, 13, where the Heb. text reads היום עשה יהוה תשועה בישראל {ha'yom 'asah Yahweh teshu'ah b'Yisrael}, in the Targum it reads יומא דין עבד יהוה פורקנא בישראל {yoma din 'avad Yahweh porqana b'Yisrael}, where יום פורקנא {yom porqana} is exactly يوم الفرقان. {yawm al-furqan}" The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an

A book made in imitation of the Quran is: الفرقان الحق The True Furqan