The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Nun. By the pen and by that which they inscribe. 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 You shall see and they will see 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Surely your Lord knows well those who have strayed from His Way just as He knows well those who are on the Right Way. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 They wish that you should be pliant so they (too) would be pliant. 9 Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger, 10 Detracter, spreader abroad of slanders, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 Cruel, after all that base-born (of illegitimate birth), 13 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 Soon shall We brand him on his snout. 16 We have indeed tested them the way We had tested the owners of the garden when they swore that they would reap its harvest the next morning. 17 without saying, "If it be God's will." 18 Then there passed by on the (garden) something (fire) from your Lord at night and burnt it while they were asleep. 19 And it became as though reaped. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 So they set out, while lowering their voices, 23 No needy man shall enter it to-day against you. 24 They left early in the morning bent on this purpose. 25 But when they saw it they said: 'We have surely gone astray. 26 Rather, we have been deprived." 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 They said, "All glory belongs to God. We have certainly been unjust". 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said, "Woe to us. We have been arrogant. 31 Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us [one] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." 32 Such is the chastisement; and the chastisement of the world to come, is assuredly greater, did they but know. 33