The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 You are not demented by the grace of your Lord. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 So very soon, you will see and they too will realise – 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 Do not yield to any contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 Detracter, spreader abroad of slanders, 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 moreover ignoble, 13 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, "Legends of the former peoples." 15 We shall brand him over the nose! 16 Verily We! We have proved them even as We proved the fellows of a garden when they sware that they would surely reap it 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 as if it were a garden plucked. 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 They were resolved to repel the beggars. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 (No, we are not lost.) In fact, we have been deprived of everything". 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They said, "All glory belongs to God. We have certainly been unjust". 29 Then some of them drew near unto others, self-reproaching. 30 They said: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 31 Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us [one] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." 32 Such is the torment. And the torment of the Hereafter is far greater; if they but knew. 33