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Surah Al-Qalam — 68:48

فَٱصْبِرْ لِحُكْمِ رَبِّكَ وَلَا تَكُن كَصَاحِبِ ٱلْحُوتِ إِذْ نَادَىٰ وَهُوَ مَكْظُومٌ

Fasbir lihkmi rabbika wa laa takun kasaahibil boot; iz naadaa wa huwa makzoom

Wait patiently [Prophet] for your Lord’s judgement: do not be like the man in the whale who called out in distress:

So be patient for your Lord's decree, and do not be like the companion of the fish, who cried out while choked with grief.

Reflection

The instruction is patience with a schedule, arriving three verses after God says the opponents are being given time, so the delay a person is asked to bear is the same delay granted to them. Makẓūm belongs to a verb for swallowing something down and holding it there, used elsewhere of people who restrain their anger. A man inside a fish is then described in the language of being stopped up, and his outer situation and his inner one are given one word.

← 68:47 68:49 →

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