Nūn. By the Pen, and by what they inscribe!He said:‘Al-Nūn’ is one of the names of God, Exalted is He, for if the opening letters of the sūras, Alif Lām Rā, Ḥā Mīm and Nūn, are joined together they make up the name al-Raḥmān. Ibn ʿAbbās y said: ‘Al-Nūn is the ink-well (dawāt) from which the Reminder (dhikr) [the Qurʾān] was written, and the Pen is that with which the Wise Reminder was written.’By what they inscribe — ⸢the Reminder which is written on the Preserved Tablet concerning the [divinely decreed] wretchedness (shaqāwa) or felicity (saʿāda) [of human beings].Ibn ʿAbbās has said in another report, ‘Nūn is the fish upon which rest the worlds (arḍūn),⸣ what they inscribe is the deeds of the children of Adam which the recording angels have written down.’ ʿUmar b. Wāṣil said:By what they inscribe means: By the writing (kitāba) [i.e. the scripture] which God has undertaken[to provide] for His servants, which contains benefits (manāfiʿ) for people, and things that are in the best interests (maṣāliḥ) of His servants and their lands.His words, Exalted is He:
