The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 You (O Muhammad SAW) are not, by the Grace of your Lord, a madman. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 And verily, you (O Muhammad SAW) are on an exalted standard of character. 4 So you will see, and they will realise, 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 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 Heed not the type of despicable men,- ready with oaths, 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 moreover ignoble, 13 Because he is owner of riches and children. 14 When Our revelations are recited to him, he says, "These are ancient legends". 15 Soon shall We brand him on his snout. 16 Verily We! We have proved them even as We proved the fellows of a garden when they sware that they would surely reap it in the morning. 17 and they added not the saving words. 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 So by the morning it seemed as though picked clean. 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 “Hurry to your orchard if you would gather its fruit.” 22 So they set out, while lowering their voices, 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 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 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 Rather, we have been deprived." 27 Said the most right-minded among them: "Did I not tell you, 'Will you not extol God's limitless glory?'" 28 'Exaltations to Allah, our Lord' they said, 'We were truly harmdoers' 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 They said, "Woe to us. We have been arrogant. 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 is the chastisement, and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is greater, did they but know! 33