SURA LXVIII.-THE PEN [XVII.]
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Rodwell, J. M. (John Medows)
Ask them which of them will guarantee this?
Or is it that they have joined gods with God? let them produce those associate-gods of theirs, if they speak truth.
On the day when men's legs shall be bared,6 and they shall be called upon to bow in adoration, they shall not be able:
Their looks shall be downcast: shame shall cover them: because, while yet in safety, they were invited to bow in worship, but would not obey.
Leave me alone therefore with him who chargeth this revelation with imposture. We will lead them by degrees to their ruin; by ways which they know not;
Yet will I bear long with them; for my plan is sure.
Askest thou any recompense from them? But they are burdened with debt.
Are the secret things within their ken? Do they copy them from the Book of God?
Patiently then await the judgment of thy Lord, and be not like him who was in the fish,7 when in deep distress he cried to God.
Had not favour from his Lord reached him, cast forth would he have been on the naked shore, overwhelmed with shame:
But his Lord chose him and made him of the just.
Almost would the infidels strike thee down with their very looks when they hear the warning of the Koran. And they say, "He is certainly possessed."
Yet is it nothing less than a warning for all creatures.
_______________________
1 It has been conjectured that as the word Nun means fish, there may be a reference to the fish which swallowed Jonas (v. 48). The fact, however, is that the meaning of this and of the similar symbols, throughout the Koran, was unknown to the Muhammadans themselves even in the first century. Possibly the letters Ha, Mim, which are prefixed to numerous successive Suras were private marks, or initial letters, attached by their proprietor to the copies furnished to Said when effecting his recension of the text under Othman. In the same way, the letters prefixed to other Suras may be monograms, or abbreviations, or initial letters of the names of the persons to whom the copies of the respective Suras belonged.
addenda: The symbol nun may possibly refer to this letter as forming the Rhyme in most of the verses of this Sura.
2 This Sura has been supposed by ancient Muslim authorities to be, if not the oldest, the second revelation, and to have followed Sura xcvi. But this opinion probably originated from the expression in v. 1 compared with Sura xcvi. 4. Verses 17-33 read like a later addition, and this passage, as well as verse 48-50, has been classed with the Medina revelations. In the absence of any reliable criterion for fixing the date, I have placed this Sura with those which detail the opposition encountered by the Prophet at Mecca.
3 By djinn. Comp. Sur. xxxiv. 45.
4 In bearing the taunts of the unbelievers with patience.
5 They did not add the restriction, if God will.
6 An expression implying a grievous calamity; borrowed probably from the action of stripping previous to wrestling, swimming, etc.
7 Lit. the companion of the fish. Comp. on Jonah Sura xxxvii. 139-148, and Sura xxi. 87.