The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 You have attained a high moral standard. 4 So you shall see, and they (too) shall see, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Verily thy Lord! He is the best Knower of him who strayeth from His path, and He is the best Knower of the guided one. 7 So hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 8 They wish that in some way you may yield, so they too might soften their stand. 9 Do not yield to one persistent in swearing, 10 The excessively insulting one, spreader of spite. 11 or to one who places obstacles in the way of good being done or to the wicked transgressor, 12 the crude of low character 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, “These are stories of earlier people.” 15 Soon shall We brand him on his snout. 16 Verily We! We have proved them even as We proved the fellows of a garden when they sware that they would surely reap it in the morning. 17 And they made not the exception. 18 Then, a visitation from your Lord came down upon it while they slept, 19 so that by the morrow it became barren and bleak. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 So off they went, whispering to one another: 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 And in the morning they went, having the power to prevent. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Lo! we are in error! 26 [and then,] "Nay, but we have been rendered destitute!" 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 Then they turned, one against another, in blaming. 30 They said, 'Woe, alas for us! Truly, we were insolent. 31 Belike our Lord may exchange for us better garden than this; verily we are unto our Lord beseechers. 32 Such is the torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33