The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 There is surely reward unending for you, 3 Surely, you (Prophet Muhammad) are of a great morality. 4 You will see and they will also see 5 Who is distracted. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 So obey thou not those who cry lies. 8 They wish that thou shouldst compromise, then they would compromise. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 the backbiter who goes about slandering, 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 Cruel, after all that base-born (of illegitimate birth), 13 just because he has wealth and sons, 14 and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.” 15 Soon We will brand him on the nose. 16 We have tested them in the same way as we tested the dwellers of the garden (in Yemen) when they swore to pluck all the fruits of the garden in the morning, 17 And they did not say, “If Allah wills”. 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 "Go early to your farms, if you want to pluck the fruits". 22 So they set out, while lowering their voices, 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 And they went forth early, determined upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw it they said: 'We have surely gone astray. 26 (Then they said): "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" 27 Said the most moderate of them, 'Did I not say to you, "Why do you not give glory?"' 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 And they came blaming one another. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 31 [But] it may be that our Sustainer will grant us something better instead: for, verily, unto our Sustainer do we turn with hope!" 32 Such is Our chastisement; and the punishment of the Hereafter will be greater, if only they knew! 33