The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen, and what they inscribe, 1 Thou art not, by thy Sustainer's grace, a madman! 2 And most surely you shall have a reward never to be cut off. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 You will see and they will also see 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Indeed your Lord well knows those who have strayed from His path, and He well knows those who are upon guidance. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 They wish that you would soften [in your position], so they would soften [toward you]. 9 And do not yield to any contemptible swearer, 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 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, "Legends of the former peoples." 15 We shall brand him on the muzzle. 16 We have tested them in the same way as we tested the dwellers of the garden (in Yemen) when they swore to pluck all the fruits of the garden in the morning, 17 Without making exception. 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 "Go early to your farms, if you want to pluck the fruits". 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones, (saying)- 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit). 25 Then when they saw it, they said, “We have indeed strayed.” 26 nay, rather we have been robbed!' 27 One who was temperate among them, said: "Did I not say: 'Why don't you priase God?'" 28 They said, 'Glory be to God, our Lord; truly, we were evildoers.' 29 Then they turned to each other reproaching. 30 They said 'Woe to us, truly we were insolent' 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 is the chastisement, and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is greater, did they but know! 33