The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen, and what they inscribe, 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 So you shall see, and they (too) shall see, 5 Which of you is afflicted with 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 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate. 9 Nor ever listen to any excessive oath maker, ignoble person. 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 Hinderer of the good, trespasser; sinner. 12 ill-mannered, and moraly corrupt 13 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, “These are stories of earlier people.” 15 Soon shall We brand (the beast) on the snout! 16 We have tried you as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed to gather the fruits in the morning 17 and made no allowance [for the will of God]: 18 Then there passed by on the (garden) something (fire) from your Lord at night and burnt it while they were asleep. 19 and the garden was turned into a barren desert. 20 (Then) in the morning they called out to one another, saying: 21 Saying: go out betimes to your tilth if ye would reap. 22 So they went, while they consulted together secretly, 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 They left early in the morning bent on this purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Lo! we are in error! 26 nay, rather we have been robbed!' 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 They said, "Glory be to God, our Lord. We have surely done wrong." 29 And they advanced one upon another, blaming each other. 30 They said, 'Woe, alas for 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 punishment (in this life), but truly, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew. 33