The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 So do not yield to the rejecters. 8 They wish that in some way you may yield, so they too might soften their stand. 9 Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger, 10 Detracter, spreader abroad of slanders, 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble; 13 because he has wealth and sons. 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 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 But made no reservation, ("If it be Allah's Will"). 18 whereupon a visitation for thy Sustainer came upon that [garden] while they were asleep, 19 So by the morning it seemed as though picked clean. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So they set out, while lowering their voices, 23 "Be sure to stop any poor person from entering the orchard today." 24 And in the morning they went, having the power to prevent. 25 When they saw (and did not recognise it) they said: "Surely we have lost the way. 26 No, rather, we have been prevented' 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 They said: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong!" 29 Then some of them drew near unto others, self-reproaching. 30 They said, “Woe to us – we were indeed rebellious.” 31 We hope that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this. Truly, we turn to our Lord (wishing for good that He may forgive our sins, and reward us in the Hereafter)." 32 Such is the chastisement, and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is greater, did they but know! 33