The Pen (Al-Qalam)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; 3 For you are truly of a sublime character. 4 So thou shalt see, and they will see, 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 So hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 14 that, whenever Our messages are conveyed to him, such a one says, "Fables of ancient times"? 15 We will soon singe his pig-nose. 16 Verily We have tried them as We tried the People of the Garden, when they resolved to gather the fruits of the (garden) in the morning. 17 And made no exception (for the Will of Allah); 18 Then a calamity from your Lord fell upon it, but they remained fast asleep. 19 and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested. 20 At daybreak they called to each other: 21 "Go early to your farms, if you want to pluck the fruits". 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones, (saying)- 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 And they went out betimes determined in purpose. 25 But when they saw it they said: 'We have surely gone astray. 26 Aye! it is we who are deprived! 27 One who was temperate among them, said: "Did I not say: 'Why don't you priase God?'" 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they turned, one against another, in reproach. 30 They said: Alas for us! In truth we were outrageous. 31 “Hopefully, our Lord will give us a better replacement than this – we now incline towards our Lord.” 32 Such is the punishment; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is the greatest, if only they knew! 33