The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 (Muhammad), you are not insane, thanks to the bounty of your Lord. 2 And indeed, for you is a reward uninterrupted. 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 So very soon, you will see and they too will realise – 5 Who is distracted. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 or to any defamer or one who spreads slander, 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 Cruel, moreover, and an illegitimate pretender. 13 Because he possesses wealth and (numerous) sons. 14 When you recite Our revelations to him, he says: "These are fables of long ago." 15 We shall brand him over 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 without making any allowance (for the will of Allah). 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord came upon it while they slept 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 Saying: Run unto your field if ye would pluck (the fruit). 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones, (saying)- 23 "Let not a single indigent person break in upon you into the (garden) this day." 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 27 The best among them said, “Did I not tell you, ‘Why do you not proclaim His purity?’” 28 'Exaltations to Allah, our Lord' they said, 'We were truly harmdoers' 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 Saying: "Alas the woe, we were iniquitous. 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 the torment. And the torment of the Hereafter is far greater; if they but knew. 33