The Pen (Al-Qalam)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 You are not insane, by the munificence of your Lord. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 You have attained a high moral standard. 4 Soon you will see, as will they, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Verily thy Lord! He is the best Knower of him who strayeth from His path, and He is the best Knower of the guided one. 7 Do not yield to those who reject the Truth. 8 They only want that you should relent, so that they may come to terms. 9 And do not yield to any contemptible swearer, 10 The excessively insulting one, spreader of spite. 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 Cruel, moreover, and an illegitimate pretender. 13 Because he is a possessor of wealth and children, 14 That, when Our revelations are recited unto him, he saith: Mere fables of the men of old. 15 Soon shall We brand him on his snout. 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 without adding to their swearing, (Allah willing, InshaAllah). 18 Then a calamity from your Lord fell upon it, but they remained fast asleep. 19 and the garden was turned into a barren desert. 20 At daybreak they called to each other: 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 So they went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 “No destitute person shall enter it today.” 24 They went betimes, strong in (this) purpose. 25 When they saw (and did not recognise it) they said: "Surely we have lost the way. 26 nay, rather we have been robbed!' 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 Then they turned, one against another, in reproach. 30 They said: Alas for us! In truth we were outrageous. 31 "It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this: for we do turn to Him (in repentance)!" 32 Such is the punishment; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is the greatest, if only they knew! 33