168لَو أَنَّ عِندَنا ذِكرًا مِنَ الأَوَّلينَMuhammad Asad"If only we had a tradition [to this effect] from our forebears,1Lit., "a reminder (dhikr) from those of old": see note 27 on verses 69-70 above. Most of the commentators assume that the term dhikr connotes here, as so often in the Qur'an, a "divine writ". In my opinion, however, it is far more probable - because more in tune with the context - that in this case it signifies an ancestral tradition bearing on the (to them astonishing) message of God's oneness and uniqueness as promulgated by the Qur'an.