Fee kitabin maknoon (surah Waqiah: 78)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(56:78) inscribed in a well-guarded Book, *38

Fee kitaabim maknoon

*38) This implies the well-guarded Tablet (leuh-mahfuz). For it the word Kitab maknun has been used, which means a writing kept hidden, i.e. a writing that is inaccessible to all. The Qur'an's having been inscribed in this well guarded Book means that before its being sent down to the Holy Prophet (upon whom be Allah's peace) it lay inscribed in the Divine Writ of Destiny in which three is no possibility of any alteration or corruption taking place, for it is inaccessible to every kind of creation. The Meaning of the Qur'an