NOSE, Cutting off. There is retaliation for cutting off a nose: a nose for a nose. (Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 294.)
NUBŪWAH (نبوة). “Prophecy.” The office or work of a nabī or prophet. [[PROPHETS].]
NŪḤ (نوح). [[NOAH].]
AN-NUJABĀʾ (النجباء), the pl. of Najīb. “The Excellent ones.” According to the Ṣūfīs, forty saintly characters who always exist on earth for the benefit of its people. (See Kashshāfu ʾl-Iṣt̤ilaḥāt in loco.) [[ABDAL].]
NUʿMĀN (نعمان). The name of several of the Kings of Ḥirāʾ. Nuʿmān V. is celebrated in the annals of the history of Arabia, because his reign approached close upon the rise of Islām, and he was the patron of several poets of renown, who have celebrated his name. (See Muir’s Life of Mahomet, 1st ed., Intro. p. clxxxi.)
Nuʿmān is also the popular title of the Imām Abū Ḥanīfah. [[HANIFAH].]
NUMRŪD (نمرود). [[NIMROD].]
NŪN (نون). The letter N ن, which occurs at the commencement of the LXVIIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān. The meaning of which is acknowledged by all commentators to be a mystery.
Al-Baiẓāwī says it is supposed that nūn either means an inkstand, referring to the pen of the first verse, or a fish, referring to that which swallowed Jonah mentioned in the 48th verse of this Sūrah, but he thinks it is merely an initial letter, the meaning of which is unknown to mortal man.
NUPTIAL FEAST. [[WALIMAH], [MARRIAGE].]