Secret Letters

OMFG, the first word of the chapter is NUN! Flashback to Catholic school, with Sister Cruella Dominatrix and her ruler. Once panic subsides, I see that this is not even a word, it's "one of the 'abbreviated letters' prefixed in some verses of the Qur'ân. Only Allâh knows its meaning". Oh, for Christ's sakes; "the inerrant and perfect Word of God [15:9] has random letters scattered through it and nobody knows what they mean! They're called Muqatta'at, and turn up in front of 29 of the chapters. Nobody has the faintest idea why. I tried to make a snarky comment on this, but my ridiculous-ometer just won't go that far.

Word is that none of these secret letters form a meaningful word, but NUN, that starts Surah 68 the Pen, is an exception. It is a real word, meaning either ‘fish' or ‘pen'. So you'll find people explaining it in the first line:

(1) NUN. By the pen and what the (angels) write. To mean:

(a) NuN is meaningless ,
(b) Nun, meaning ‘pen' gives the chapter its name
(c) Nun, meaning ‘fish' refers to verse 48 which mentions Jonah,...or...
(d) since it also can mean ‘inkstand', we get

(1) By the inkstand and the pen and that which they write!

"inerrant and perfect Word" Pffft! Here's another inerrant and perfect word that I like: Bullshit!