The Pen (Al-Qalam)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 You are not demented by the grace of your Lord. 2 Most surely, you will have a never ending reward. 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 Soon you will see, as will they, 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 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 Therefore, do not obey those who belie, 8 they wish you would compromise, then, they would compromise. 9 Do not yield to one persistent in swearing, 10 or to any defamer or one who spreads slander, 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble; 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.” 15 We shall brand him on the nose. 16 We have indeed tested them the way We had tested the owners of the garden when they swore that they would reap its harvest the next morning. 17 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 Then there passed by on the (garden) something (fire) from your Lord at night and burnt it while they were asleep. 19 so that by the morrow it became barren and bleak. 20 And they called out to each other in the morning, 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones (saying), 23 "Let no beggar come to the garden". 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 Aye! it is we who are deprived! 27 One who was temperate among them, said: "Did I not say: 'Why don't you priase God?'" 28 They said, "Exalted is our Lord! Indeed, we were wrongdoers." 29 Then they turned, one against another, in reproach. 30 They said: Alas for us! In truth we were outrageous. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better than it; to our Lord we humbly turn.' 32 Such is the punishment; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is the greatest, if only they knew! 33