The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 You are not, [O Muhammad], by the favor of your Lord, a madman. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 So you shall see, and they (too) shall see, 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 they wish you would compromise, then, they would compromise. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 13 because he has wealth and sons. 14 When to him are rehearsed Our Signs, "Tales of the ancients", he cries! 15 Soon shall We brand him on his snout. 16 Surely We will try them as We tried the owners of the garden, when they swore that they would certainly cut off the produce in the morning, 17 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 Thereupon a calamity from your Lord passed over it while they were asleep, 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 Now when they rose at early morn, they called unto one another, 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So off they went, whispering to one another: 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 (No, we are not lost.) In fact, we have been deprived of everything". 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 They said, “Purity is to our Lord – we have indeed been unjust.” 29 And they advanced one upon another, blaming each other. 30 They said 'Woe to us, truly we were insolent' 31 May be our Lord will give us a better orchard in its stead; we turn to Him." 32 Such is the torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33