It is Meccan, and it consists of fifty-two verses [revealed after Al-‘Alaq]. 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.'

It is recited: N and the pen with clarification and merging, and with the nun being silent, opened, or broken, as in Sad. The intended meaning is this letter from the letters of the alphabet. As for their saying: 'It is the pen,' I do not know whether it is a linguistic or legal designation.

If it is a name for the pen, it must be either a genus or a proper noun. If it is a genus, then where is the case and the tanween? If it is a proper noun, then where is the case? In either case, it must have a position in the composition of speech. If you say:

It is an oath by which, if it is a genus, it should be in the genitive case and have tanween, and the oath would be by an indefinite, unknown pen, as if it were said: 'And a pen.' If it is a proper noun, it should be declined and put in the genitive case, or it should not be declined and remain open for being a proper noun and feminine. Likewise, the interpretation of the whale: it may refer to the nun from the naynān. Or it may be made a proper noun for the Yihmūt [[The phrase 'or it may be made a proper noun for the Yihmūt' may refer to Yihmūt with a single letter, as stated by others; this should be clarified. (A)]] that they claim, and the interpretation of the tablet made of light or gold, and the river in Paradise is similar.

And I swear by the pen: to glorify it, for in its creation and formation is evidence of great wisdom, and for the benefits and advantages it contains that description cannot encompass. And what they write and what they inscribe. It is said: what the guardians conceal, and what is either relative or gerundive. It is permissible that the pen refers to its companions, so the pronoun in 'they inscribe' refers to them as if it were said: 'And the companions of the pen and their inscriptions.' Or their writings, and it refers to everything that is inscribed, or to the guardians.