The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen and the (Record) which (men) write,- 1 You are not insane, by the munificence of your Lord. 2 Most surely, you will have a never ending reward. 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 So you will soon see, and they too will see, 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who walk aright. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger, 10 Detracter, spreader abroad of slanders, 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 13 because he has wealth and sons. 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 We shall brand him on his nose. 16 Surely We will try them as We tried the owners of the garden, when they swore that they would certainly cut off the produce in the morning, 17 Without saying: Insha' Allah (If Allah will). 18 whereupon a visitation for thy Sustainer came upon that [garden] while they were asleep, 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 (Then) in the morning they called out to one another, saying: 21 That, “Go to your fields at early morn, if you want to harvest.” 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 “Make sure that no needy person enters your garden this day.” 24 They were resolved to repel the beggars. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "Verily, we have gone astray," 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 'Exaltations to Allah, our Lord' they said, 'We were truly harmdoers' 29 Then some of them drew near unto others, self-reproaching. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 31 Perhaps our Lord will replace it with a better garden. We turn in repentance to our Lord". 32 Such was their punishment, [in this life]. But the punishment of the life to come is much more severe, if only they knew it! 33