QMI-INS-033 · 84 AH
Qurʾanic Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿImārah
نقش عبد الله بن عمارة
Wādī al-Ḥurumān
- يايها الناس اتقوا (كذا) ربكم الذي خلقكم وا
- لذين من قبلكم لعلكم تفلحون (كذا) وكتب عبد ا
- لله بن عمارة لسنة أربع وثمنين (ثمانين)
“O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous” [cf. Q 2:21]. And ʿAbd- allāh ibn ʿImārah wrote [this], in the year four and eighty.
The scribe's memory of the verse (opening of Sūrat al-Baqarah, 2:21) slips at two points, marked "kadhā" ("sic") by the editor: writing ittaqū ("be mindful of") where the Qurʾanic text has uʿbudū ("worship"), and tuflihūn ("you may prosper") in place of the verse's tattaqūn ("you may become righteous") — small variations that suggest quotation from memory rather than a written exemplar.
Source: Photograph by ʿAbdallāh Muṣliḥ al-Thumālī (@thoomaly11), posted 29 March 2018.