The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by what you write, 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 surely thou art upon a mighty morality. 4 Soon wilt thou see, and they will see, 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 Then do not obey the deniers. 8 They only want that you should relent, so that they may come to terms. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 When Our revelations are recited to him, he says, "These are ancient legends". 15 Soon We will brand him on the nose. 16 Indeed, We have tried them as We tried the companions of the garden, when they swore to cut its fruit in the [early] morning 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 it became as black, barren land. 20 Now when they rose at early morn, they called unto one another, 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 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 And in the morning they went, having the power to prevent. 25 But as soon as they beheld the orchard, (they cried out): “We have certainly lost the way; 26 Aye! it is we who are deprived! 27 The best among them said, “Did I not tell you, ‘Why do you not proclaim His purity?’” 28 They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.” 29 And they came blaming one another. 30 Saying: "Alas the woe, we were iniquitous. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than it in exchange. To our Lord we humbly turn' 32 Such is the chastisement, and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is greater, did they but know! 33