The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen and the (Record) which (men) write,- 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 And indeed, for you is a reward uninterrupted. 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 You will see, and they will see, 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Verily, thy Sustainer alone is fully aware as to who has strayed from His path, Just as He alone is fully aware of those who have found the right way. 7 So do not yield to the rejecters. 8 Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 back-biting, gossiping, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble; 13 because he has wealth and sons. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 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 And they made not the exception. 18 Thereupon a calamity from your Lord passed over it while they were asleep, 19 so that by the morrow it became barren and bleak. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 'Come forth betimes upon your tillage, if you would pluck!' 22 So they went off, while whispering to one another. 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 They left early in the morning bent on this purpose. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 27 One who was temperate among them, said: "Did I not say: 'Why don't you priase God?'" 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: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 31 Belike our Lord may exchange for us better garden than this; verily we are unto our Lord beseechers. 32 Such is Our chastisement; and the punishment of the Hereafter will be greater, if only they knew! 33