The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen, and what they inscribe, 1 You are not demented by the grace of your Lord. 2 And indeed, for you is a reward uninterrupted. 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 Soon you will see, as will they, 5 Which of you is the afflicted [by a devil]. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 So do not yield to the rejecters. 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 And obey not thou any swearer ignominous. 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 13 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 We shall mark him upon 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 made no exception (for the Will of Allah); 18 So there came upon the garden an affliction from your Lord while they were asleep. 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So they went, while they consulted together secretly, 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. 25 But as soon as they beheld the orchard, (they cried out): “We have certainly lost the way; 26 (No, we are not lost.) In fact, we have been deprived of everything". 27 The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?” 28 They answered: "Limitless in His glory is our Sustainer! Verily, we were doing wrong!" 29 Then they turned, one against another, in reproach. 30 They said, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. 31 Belike our Lord may exchange for us better garden than this; verily we are unto our Lord beseechers. 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