The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write. 1 You are not, [O Muhammad], by the favor of your Lord, a madman. 2 And indeed for you is an unlimited reward. 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 You will see, and they will see, 5 which of you is a prey to madness. 6 Verily thy Lord! He is the best Knower of him who strayeth from His path, and He is the best Knower of the guided one. 7 Then do not obey the deniers. 8 They only want that you should relent, so that they may come to terms. 9 Do not yield to any contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 or to one who places obstacles in the way of good being done or to the wicked transgressor, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 or that because he may possess wealth and children. 14 When Our Verses (of the Quran) are recited to him, he says: "Tales of the men of old!" 15 We shall mark him upon his nose! 16 We have tried you as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed to gather the fruits in the morning 17 without saying, "If it be God's will." 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 Then they called out one to another as soon as the morning broke, 21 "If you want to gather the fruits, let us go early to the plantation." 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 (No, we are not lost.) In fact, we have been deprived of everything". 27 The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?” 28 They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.” 29 Then some of them advanced against others, blaming each other. 30 They said, 'Woe, alas for us! Truly, we were insolent. 31 Maybe our Lord will give us a better orchard in its place; to our Lord do we penitently turn.” 32 Such is the punishment (in this life), but truly, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew. 33