The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 By your Lord's Grace, you are not afflicted with madness, 2 And indeed, for you is a reward uninterrupted. 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 So you will see and they will see 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Verily it is thy Lord that knoweth best, which (among men) hath strayed from His Path: and He knoweth best those who receive (true) Guidance. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 Who would have had thee compromise, that they may compromise. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble; 13 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 We shall brand him on the nose. 16 We have tried them as we tried the owners of a certain orchard, who vowed to harvest all its fruits the next morning, 17 and they added not the saving words. 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 “Hurry to your orchard if you would gather its fruit.” 22 They all left, whispering to one another, 23 "Indeed, no needy person shall enter it today [and come] upon you [unawares,]" 24 And they went in the morning with strong intention, thinking that they have power (to prevent the poor taking anything of the fruits therefrom). 25 But when they saw it, they said: Lo! we are in error! 26 Nay! we are made to suffer privation. 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 They said: Glorified be our Lord! Lo! we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they started blaming one another, 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 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 suffering [with which We try some people in this world]; but greater by far will be the suffering [which sinners shall have to bear] in the life to come - if they but knew it! 33