The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 You are not, [O Muhammad], by the favor of your Lord, a madman. 2 Most surely, you will have a never ending reward. 3 And indeed, you are of a great moral character. 4 You shall see and they will see 5 which of you is a prey to madness. 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 Therefore do not listen to the deniers. 8 They would like you to relent to them so that they could also relent towards you. 9 Do not yield to any contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 The excessively insulting one, spreader of spite. 11 Who hinders men from (doing) good, the transgressor, the iniquitous, 12 Crude, and above all, mean and infamous, 13 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 We shall brand him on the muzzle. 16 We have tried you as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed to gather the fruits in the morning 17 And they made not the exception. 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 So in the morning it became as if harvested. 20 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 "Go early to your farms, if you want to pluck the fruits". 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 And they went in the morning with strong intention, thinking that they have power (to prevent the poor taking anything of the fruits therefrom). 25 But as soon as they beheld [the garden and could not recognize] it, they exclaimed, "Surely we have lost our way!" 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.” 29 So they came towards each other, blaming. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 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 suffering [with which We try some people in this world]; but greater by far will be the suffering [which sinners shall have to bear] in the life to come - if they but knew it! 33