The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 surely thou art upon a mighty morality. 4 Anon thou wilt see and they will see. 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has gone astray from His way, and He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided. 7 So obey thou not those who cry lies. 8 they would like thee to be soft [with them,] so that they might be soft [with thee]. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 A defamer, spreader abroad of slander. 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 Crude, and above all, mean and infamous, 13 Simply because he possesses wealth and children. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, “These are stories of earlier people.” 15 We will brand him upon the snout. 16 Lo! We have tried them as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed that they would pluck its fruit next morning, 17 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 So it became as black, barren land. 20 Then they called out one to another as soon as the morning broke, 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones (saying), 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 No, rather, we have been prevented' 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 They said: Glorified be our Lord! Lo! we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they started blaming one another, 30 They said, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. 31 May be our Lord will give us a better orchard in its stead; we turn to Him." 32 Such is the chastisement; and the chastisement of the world to come, is assuredly greater, did they but know. 33