31: 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).