The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 You are not demented by the grace of your Lord. 2 Most surely, you will have a never ending reward. 3 And indeed, you are of a great moral character. 4 And thou wilt see and they will see 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant. 9 And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 Because he possesses wealth and (numerous) sons. 14 That, when Our revelations are recited unto him, he saith: Mere fables of the men of old. 15 We will brand him upon the snout. 16 We have indeed tested them the way We had tested the owners of the garden when they swore that they would reap its harvest the next morning. 17 and made no allowance [for the will of God]: 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 saying, "Be quick to reach your orchard, if you want to gather all your fruits." 22 So they went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 “Make sure that no needy person enters your garden this day.” 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 Then when they saw it, they said, “We have indeed strayed.” 26 Nay, but we are desolate! 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 They said, "Glory be to God, our Lord. We have surely done wrong." 29 Then they began to reproach one another. 30 They said, “Woe to us – we were indeed rebellious.” 31 We hope that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this. Truly, we turn to our Lord (wishing for good that He may forgive our sins, and reward us in the Hereafter)." 32 Such is the punishment (in this life), but truly, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew. 33