The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 You (O Muhammad SAW) are not, by the Grace of your Lord, a madman. 2 And most surely you shall have a reward never to be cut off. 3 surely thou art upon a mighty morality. 4 So very soon, you will see and they too will realise – 5 Which of you is the afflicted [by a devil]. 6 Verily it is thy Lord that knoweth best, which (among men) hath strayed from His Path: and He knoweth best those who receive (true) Guidance. 7 So hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 8 they wish you would compromise, then, they would compromise. 9 Heed not the type of despicable men,- ready with oaths, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 Crude, and above all, mean and infamous, 13 because he has wealth and sons. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, “These are stories of earlier people.” 15 We shall brand him on his nose. 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 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 So the (garden) became black by the morning, like a pitch dark night (in complete ruins). 20 Then they cried out unto each other in the morning. 21 "Go early to your farms, if you want to pluck the fruits". 22 They all left, whispering to one another, 23 No needy man shall enter it to-day against you. 24 They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 The best among them said: Said I not unto you: Why glorify ye not (Allah)? 28 They said, "Exalted is our Lord! Indeed, we were wrongdoers." 29 Then they began to reproach one another. 30 They said 'Woe to us, truly we were insolent' 31 It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better than it; to our Lord we humbly turn.' 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