The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 You are not demented by the grace of your Lord. 2 Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; 3 And indeed, you are of a great moral character. 4 You shall see and they will see 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 Therefore, do not obey those who belie, 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger, 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 moreover ignoble, 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 Soon We will brand him on the nose. 16 Verily We have tried them as We tried the People of the Garden, when they resolved to gather the fruits of the (garden) in the morning. 17 without adding to their swearing, (Allah willing, InshaAllah). 18 Then, a visitation from your Lord came down upon it while they slept, 19 and the garden was turned into a barren desert. 20 Now when they rose at early morn, they called unto one another, 21 Saying: go out betimes to your tilth if ye would reap. 22 So they went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 "Indeed, no needy person shall enter it today [and come] upon you [unawares,]" 24 And they went forth early, determined upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw it they said: 'We have surely gone astray. 26 Rather, we have been deprived." 27 The best among them said: Said I not unto you: Why glorify ye not (Allah)? 28 They said, "All glory belongs to God. We have certainly been unjust". 29 Then they began to reproach one another. 30 [In the end] they said: "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we did behave outrageously! 31 "It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this: for we do turn to Him (in repentance)!" 32 Such was their punishment. But the punishment of the Everlasting Life is much greater, if they but knew. 33