The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 And thou (standest) on an exalted standard of character. 4 So thou shalt see, and they will see, 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 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 hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 8 They wish that you should be pliant so they (too) would be pliant. 9 Do not yield to one persistent in swearing, 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 or to one who places obstacles in the way of good being done or to the wicked transgressor, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 or that because he may possess wealth and children. 14 that, whenever Our messages are conveyed to him, such a one says, "Fables of ancient times"? 15 We shall brand him upon the muzzle! 16 [As for such sinners,] behold, We [but] try them as We tried the owners of a certain garden who vowed that they would surely harvest its fruit on the morrow, 17 and made no allowance [for the will of God]: 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 out to one another, 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So they went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit). 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 No, rather, we have been prevented' 27 A reasonable one among them said, "Did I not tell you that you should glorify God?" 28 They said: Glory be to our Lord, surely we were unjust. 29 Then they turned, one against another, in blaming. 30 They said: Alas for us! In truth we were outrageous. 31 May be our Lord will give us a better orchard in its stead; we turn to Him." 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33