The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and that which they write (therewith), 1 By your Lord's Grace, you are not afflicted with madness, 2 And verily, thine shall be a reward neverending 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are guided. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 And obey not everyone who swears much, and is considered worthless, 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble; 13 Because he is owner of riches and children. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 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 exception. 18 A calamity from your Lord befell the orchard as they slept. 19 And in the morning it was as if plucked. 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 Saying: go out betimes to your tilth if ye would reap. 22 They all left, whispering to one another, 23 'No needy man shall enter it today against your will.' 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 But as soon as they beheld [the garden and could not recognize] it, they exclaimed, "Surely we have lost our way!" 26 (Then they said): "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" 27 Said one of them, more just (than the rest): "Did I not say to you, 'Why not glorify (Allah)?'" 28 They said: Glory be to our Lord, surely we were unjust. 29 Then they started blaming one another, 30 They said: “Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed. 31 "It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this: for we do turn to Him (in repentance)!" 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33