The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; 3 And indeed, you are of a great moral character. 4 So thou shalt see, and they will see, 5 Which of you is the demented. 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 Do not yield to those who reject the Truth. 8 they would like thee to be soft [with them,] so that they might be soft [with thee]. 9 Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger, 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 Gross, and therewithal ignoble. 13 or that because he may possess wealth 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 Verily, We have tried them as We tried the people of the garden, when they swore to pluck the fruits of the (garden) in the morning, 17 without making any allowance (for the will of Allah). 18 Then a calamity from your Lord fell upon it, but they remained fast asleep. 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 In the morning they called to one another, 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 So they departed, whispering together, 23 "Indeed, no needy person shall enter it today [and come] upon you [unawares,]" 24 They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 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: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong!" 29 Some of them started to blame others. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 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 torment. And the torment of the Hereafter is far greater; if they but knew. 33