The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 thou art not, by the blessing of thy Lord, a man possessed. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 Surely, you (Prophet Muhammad) are of a great morality. 4 So thou shalt see, and they will see, 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has gone astray from His way, and He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant. 9 And do not yield to any contemptible swearer, 10 backbiter, going about with slander, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children 14 that, whenever Our messages are conveyed to him, such a one says, "Fables of ancient times"? 15 Anon We shall brand him on snout. 16 Now We have tried them, even as We tried the owners of the garden when they swore they would pluck in the morning 17 Without making exception. 18 A calamity from your Lord befell the orchard as they slept. 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 In the morning they called to one another, 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 So they set out, while lowering their voices, 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 'Exaltations to Allah, our Lord' they said, 'We were truly harmdoers' 29 And they advanced one upon another, blaming each other. 30 They said: "Woe to us! Verily, we were Taghun (transgressors and disobedient, etc.) 31 “Hopefully, our Lord will give us a better replacement than this – we now incline towards our Lord.” 32 Such was their punishment. But the punishment of the Everlasting Life is much greater, if they but knew. 33