The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Nun. By the pen and by that which they inscribe. 1 Thou art not, by thy Sustainer's grace, a madman! 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 And verily, you (O Muhammad SAW) are on an exalted standard of character. 4 So very soon, you will see and they too will realise – 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 Nor ever listen to any excessive oath maker, ignoble person. 10 The excessively insulting one, spreader of spite. 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 or that because he may possess wealth and children. 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 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 saying, "If it be God's will." 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 So the (garden) became, by the morning, like a dark and desolate spot, (whose fruit had been gathered). 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 Nay! we are made to suffer privation. 27 The best among them said: Said I not unto you: Why glorify ye not (Allah)? 28 They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.” 29 Then they approached one another, blaming each other. 30 They said, “Woe to us – we were indeed rebellious.” 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than this in place thereof. Lo! we beseech our Lord. 32 SUCH is the suffering [with which We try some people in this world]; but greater by far will be the suffering [which sinners shall have to bear] in the life to come - if they but knew it! 33