The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen, and what they inscribe, 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 And thou wilt see and they will see 5 Who is distracted. 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate. 9 Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 Hinderer of the good, trespasser; sinner. 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 Because he is owner of riches and children. 14 When to him are rehearsed Our Signs, "Tales of the ancients", he cries! 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 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 Thereupon a calamity from your Lord passed over it while they were asleep, 19 and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. 20 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 'No needy man shall enter it today against your will.' 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 (Then they said): "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" 27 The best among them said: "Did I not tell you: why do you not say: Insha' Allah (If Allah will)." 28 They said: Glory be to our Lord, surely we were unjust. 29 Then they turned, one against another, in reproach. 30 Said they: O woe to us! surely we were inordinate: 31 May be our Lord will give us a better orchard in its stead; we turn to Him." 32 Such was the punishment. And verily the punishment of the Hereafter is greater if they did but know. 33