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 thou art not, by the blessing of thy Lord, a man possessed. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 surely thou art upon a mighty morality. 4 You will see and they will also see 5 Who is distracted. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 So hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 8 Who would have had thee compromise, that they may compromise. 9 Do not heed a contemptible swearer, 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 Crude, and above all, mean and infamous, 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 When you recite Our revelations to him, he says: "These are fables of long ago." 15 Soon We will brand him on the nose. 16 We have put them [i.e., the Makkans] to test even as We put to test the owners of the orchard when they vowed that they would gather the fruit of their orchard in the morning, 17 And they made not the exception. 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 Then in the morning it became as though it had been reaped. 20 And they called one another at morning, 21 That, “Go to your fields at early morn, if you want to harvest.” 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 “Make sure that no needy person enters your garden this day.” 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 But as soon as they beheld [the garden and could not recognize] it, they exclaimed, "Surely we have lost our way!" 26 Nay! we are made to suffer privation. 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They said: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong!" 29 Then they turned, one against another, in blaming. 30 They said 'Woe to us, truly we were insolent' 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than this in place thereof. Lo! we beseech our Lord. 32 Such is the torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33