7كَلّا إِنَّ كِتابَ الفُجّارِ لَفي سِجّينٍMuhammad AsadNAY, VERILY, the record of the wicked is indeed [set down] in a mode inescapable!1According to some of the greatest philologists (e.g., Abu Ubaydah, as quoted in the Lisan al-Arab), the term sijjin is derived from - or even synonymous with - the noun sijn, which signifies "a prison". Proceeding from this derivation, some authorities attribute to sijjin the tropical meaning of da'im, i.e., "continuing" or "lasting" (ibid.). Thus, in its metaphorical application to a sinner's "record", it is evidently meant to stress the latter's inescapable quality, as if its contents were lastingly "imprisoned", i.e., set down indelibly, with no possibility of escaping from what they imply: hence my rendering of the phrase fi sijjin as "[set down] in a mode inescapable". This interpretation is, to my mind, fully confirmed by verse 9 below.