The Pen (Al-Qalam)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen and the (Record) which (men) write,- 1 You are not insane, by the munificence of your Lord. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 So thou shalt see, and they will see, 5 Who is distracted. 6 Surely thy Lord knows very well those who have gone astray from His way, and He knows very well those who are guided. 7 Hence, defer not to [the likes and dislikes of] those who give the lie to the truth: 8 they would like thee to be soft [with them,] so that they might be soft [with thee]. 9 And yield not to any mean swearer 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 just because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our revelations are recited to him, he says, "These are ancient legends". 15 We shall brand him on his nose. 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 Then there passed by on the (garden) something (fire) from your Lord at night and burnt it while they were asleep. 19 Then in the morning it became as though it had been reaped. 20 And they called one another at morning, 21 "If you want to gather the fruits, let us go early to the plantation." 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 They said: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong!" 29 So they came towards each other, blaming. 30 They said, "Woe to us. We have been arrogant. 31 We hope that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this. Truly, we turn to our Lord (wishing for good that He may forgive our sins, and reward us in the Hereafter)." 32 Such is the punishment; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is the greatest, if only they knew! 33