Oh, I just meant that the Qur'an mentions the existence of other kitab's that people have access to. I'm not sure entirely if what we know of as books (the way they are bound today) would pop into the minds of people at the time, so kitab might actually mean something like scripture, which were usually kept on parchment scrolls, and were sometimes bound more into the form we know today, but otherwise were kept in scrolls in the past or rolls I think, and the scroll imagery seems to be used in other places in the Qur'an rather than the type of imagery we might think of when we today hear the word book.
Anyway, here are all the times Kitab is mentioned, but what is amazing is like you mentioned it refers to itself as Kitab even before its completion, but maybe when it does so it is a much larger corpus at that point.
The Quranic Arabic Corpus - Quran Search
A HA!
Chapter (57) sūrat l-ḥadīd (The Iron)
(57:22:12)
kitābin
a Register
N – genitive masculine indefinite noun اسم مجرور
Verse (57:22)
The analysis above refers to the 22nd verse of chapter 57 (
sūrat l-ḥadīd):
Sahih International:
No disaster strikes upon the earth or among yourselves except that it is in a register before We bring it into being - indeed that, for Allah , is easy -
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So actually, maybe it makes more sense as the word "Register" or "Record" or something, maybe even "Account" in some archaic form of the word, when it says Kitab. This is the/a Record/Account/Register of which there is no doubt. Which then doesn't really bring to mind the issue that before the book is complete, the content of the book can refer to itself as "The Book", which seems easier to me to do if it is saying "Record" since then it would be referring to what has been recorded and is being recorded, whereas a Book gives the impression of something completed and available and being referred to (like speaking of the future as if it is already here).
So when it says "Do you have a Book?" it can be saying "Do you have some account where it says...", or it says something like "their Account / Record says". Also, the Bible is a compilation of "Books" but really its a compilation of Records and Histories and Accounts of events, and Kitab from Ancient times, writing was to make an account or register things, register prices and bills paid, register events or record astronomical things, stuff like that, and they were ongoing records sometimes rather than meaning Complete Finished Book the way we think of a Book as a kind of done piece like a movie.
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Chapter (57) sūrat l-ḥadīd (The Iron)
(57:29:4)
l-kitābi
(of) the Book
N – genitive masculine noun اسم مجرور
Verse (57:29)
The analysis above refers to the 29th verse of chapter 57 (sūrat l-ḥadīd):
Sahih International: [This is] so that the People of the Scripture may know that they are not able [to obtain] anything from the bounty of Allah and that [all] bounty is in the hand of Allah ; He gives it to whom He wills. And Allah is the possessor of great bounty.
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Chapter (69) sūrat l-ḥāqah (The Inevitable)
(69:19:4)
kitābahu
his record
N – accusative masculine noun
PRON – 3rd person masculine singular possessive pronoun اسم منصوب والهاء ضمير متصل في محل جر بالاضافة
Verse (69:19)
The analysis above refers to the nineteenth verse of chapter 69 (sūrat l-ḥāqah):
Sahih International: So as for he who is given his record in his right hand, he will say, "Here, read my record!
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Chapter (66) sūrat l-taḥrīm (The Prohibition)
(66:12:14)
wakutubihi
and His Books,
CONJ – prefixed conjunction wa (and)
N – genitive masculine plural noun
PRON – 3rd person masculine singular possessive pronoun الواو عاطفة
اسم مجرور والهاء ضمير متصل في محل جر بالاضافة
Verse (66:12)
The analysis above refers to the twelfth verse of chapter 66 (sūrat l-taḥrīm):
Sahih International: And [the example of] Mary, the daughter of 'Imran, who guarded her chastity, so We blew into [her garment] through Our angel, and she believed in the words of her Lord and His scriptures and was of the devoutly obedient.
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Chapter (78) sūrat l-naba (The Great News)
(78:29:4)
kitāban
(in) a Book.
N – accusative masculine indefinite noun اسم منصوب
Verse (78:29)
The analysis above refers to the 29th verse of chapter 78 (sūrat l-naba):
Sahih International: But all things We have enumerated in writing.
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Chapter (98) sūrat l-bayinah (The Clear Evidence)
(98:3:2)
kutubun
(are) writings
N – nominative masculine plural indefinite noun اسم مرفوع
Verse (98:3)
The analysis above refers to the third verse of chapter 98 (sūrat l-bayinah):
Sahih International: Within which are correct writings.
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Oh, so that is interesting, maybe Writings is a good alternative too then, when goes even further away from how the word Record can also seem like a complete thing rather than scattered materials which "writings" might give more of an impression of in English.
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