The Pen (Al-Qalam)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 Thou art not, for thy Lord's favour unto thee, a madman. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 So thou shalt see, and they will see, 5 which of you is a prey to madness. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are guided. 7 So do not yield to the rejecters. 8 Who would have had thee compromise, that they may compromise. 9 And do not yield to any contemptible swearer, 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 moreover ignoble, 13 Is it because he is possessed of worldly goods and children 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 Soon We will brand him on the nose. 16 We have put them [i.e., the Makkans] to test even as We put to test the owners of the orchard when they vowed that they would gather the fruit of their orchard in the morning, 17 without saying, "If it be God's will." 18 A calamity from your Lord befell the orchard as they slept. 19 So the (garden) became black by the morning, like a pitch dark night (in complete ruins). 20 And they called out to each other in the morning, 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 So they departed, whispering together, 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 (Then they said): "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" 27 The best among them said, “Did I not tell you, ‘Why do you not proclaim His purity?’” 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said: “Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed. 31 Maybe our Lord will give us a better orchard in its place; to our Lord do we penitently turn.” 32 Such is the punishment; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is the greatest, if only they knew! 33