The Glorious Qur`an

31: Luqman (luqman)

This chapter was revealed after (Drawn up in) Ranks 37 and before Sheba 34.

it consists of four sections which embrace 34 Meccan verses (except that the poem on "God's Words " in section iii dates from a later period in Madina).

Among the Arabs Luqman was a spiritual associate and possible grandnephew of the Old Testament prophet Job, and similar to the fable-teller and wise man of Greece called Aesop. He is in fact the traditional Arab sage who fills much the same place in Arab folklore as Aesop (OR the Ethiopian `) did among the Greeks.

From now on the chapters become shorter. This one is full of fine thoughts, including a Polonius-style speech to the wiseman's son. Towards the end, it also has two hymns, one on God's Words " (III) and the other on God the All-Knowing " (IV).