The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 You are not, [O Muhammad], by the favor of your Lord, a madman. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 Surely, you (Prophet Muhammad) are of a great morality. 4 So you will see, and they will realise, 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 So obey thou not those who cry lies. 8 they would like thee to be soft [with them,] so that they might be soft [with thee]. 9 And do not obey every mean swearer, 10 the backbiter who goes about slandering, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 13 Because he is owner of riches and children. 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 16 Now We have tried them, even as We tried the owners of the garden when they swore they would pluck in the morning 17 But did not add: "If God may please." 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 Then they called out one to another as soon as the morning broke, 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So they went off, while whispering to one another. 23 “Make sure that no needy person enters your garden this day.” 24 They left early in the morning bent on this purpose. 25 But as soon as they beheld [the garden and could not recognize] it, they exclaimed, "Surely we have lost our way!" 26 Nay, but we are desolate! 27 One who was temperate among them, said: "Did I not say: 'Why don't you priase God?'" 28 They answered: "Limitless in His glory is our Sustainer! Verily, we were doing wrong!" 29 So they came towards each other, blaming. 30 They said, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. 31 [But] it may be that our Sustainer will grant us something better instead: for, verily, unto our Sustainer do we turn with hope!" 32 Such was the punishment. And verily the punishment of the Hereafter is greater if they did but know. 33