The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 You have attained a high moral standard. 4 So you shall see, and they (too) shall see, 5 Who is distracted. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are guided. 7 Therefore do not listen to the deniers. 8 They wish that in some way you may yield, so they too might soften their stand. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 just because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our signs are recited to him, he says, 'Fairy-tales of the ancients!' 15 We shall brand him on the nose. 16 [As for such sinners,] behold, We [but] try them as We tried the owners of a certain garden who vowed that they would surely harvest its fruit on the morrow, 17 And they made not the exception. 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 And it became as though reaped. 20 They then called out to each other at daybreak. 21 "Go early to your farms, if you want to pluck the fruits". 22 So they went, while they consulted together secretly, 23 "Let not a single indigent person break in upon you into the (garden) this day." 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 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 (Then they said): "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 They said, “Purity is to our Lord – we have indeed been unjust.” 29 Then they turned to each other reproaching. 30 They said, “Woe to us – we were indeed rebellious.” 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 their punishment, [in this life]. But the punishment of the life to come is much more severe, if only they knew it! 33