The Pen (Al-Qalam)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 (Muhammad), you are not insane, thanks to the bounty of your Lord. 2 You will certainly receive a never-ending reward. 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 You will see and they will also see 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 Therefore do not listen to the deniers. 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 ill-mannered, and moraly corrupt 13 Because he is owner of riches and children. 14 When to him are rehearsed Our Signs, "Tales of the ancients", he cries! 15 We will brand him on the nose. 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 they did not say, “If Allah wills”. 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 So by the morning it seemed as though picked clean. 20 And they called out to each other in the morning, 21 "Go ye to your tilth (betimes) in the morning, if ye would gather the fruits." 22 So they went off, saying one unto another in low tones: 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 And they went early in determination, [assuming themselves] able. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?” 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 And they advanced one upon another, blaming each other. 30 Said they: O woe to us! surely we were inordinate: 31 Maybe our Lord will give us better than this. We turn to our Lord in supplication." 32 Such is the punishment; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is the greatest, if only they knew! 33