The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 (Muhammad), you are not insane, thanks to the bounty of your Lord. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 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 So hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 8 They wish that you should be pliant so they (too) would be pliant. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 back-biting, gossiping, 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble; 13 Because he possesses wealth and (numerous) sons. 14 that, whenever Our messages are conveyed to him, such a one says, "Fables of ancient times"? 15 We will brand him upon the snout. 16 [As for such sinners,] behold, We [but] try them as We tried the owners of a certain garden who vowed that they would surely harvest its fruit on the morrow, 17 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 A visitor from your Lord circled around the garden during the night while they were asleep 19 So in the morning it became as if harvested. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 "Go ye to your tilth (betimes) in the morning, if ye would gather the fruits." 22 So they went off, saying one unto another in low tones: 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 They left early in the morning bent on this purpose. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 Aye! it is we who are deprived! 27 Said the most moderate of them, 'Did I not say to you, "Why do you not give glory?"' 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 Then they approached one another, blaming each other. 30 Said they: O woe to us! surely we were inordinate: 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 Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33