The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Nun. By the pen and that which they write (therewith), 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 So you will see, and they will realise, 5 which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 Hence, defer not to [the likes and dislikes of] those who give the lie to the truth: 8 They only want that you should relent, so that they may come to terms. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 A defamer, spreader abroad of slander. 11 Hinderer of the good, transgressor, malefactor 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 when Our revelations are recited to him, he says, "These are just ancient fables." 15 We will soon singe his pig-nose. 16 Verily We! We have proved them even as We proved the fellows of a garden when they sware that they would surely reap it in the morning. 17 Without making exception. 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 So they went, while they consulted together secretly, 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 They went betimes, strong in (this) purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "We must have lost our way. 26 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 27 Said the most moderate of them, 'Did I not say to you, "Why do you not give glory?"' 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 Then they approached one another, blaming each other. 30 They said 'Woe to us, truly we were insolent' 31 “Hopefully, our Lord will give us a better replacement than this – we now incline towards our Lord.” 32 SUCH is the suffering [with which We try some people in this world]; but greater by far will be the suffering [which sinners shall have to bear] in the life to come - if they but knew it! 33