The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen and the (Record) which (men) write,- 1 You are not demented by the grace of your Lord. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 Surely, you (Prophet Muhammad) are of a great morality. 4 Anon thou wilt see and they will see. 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant. 9 Do not yield to one persistent in swearing, 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 Hinderer of the good, transgressor, malefactor 12 Gross, and therewithal ignoble. 13 Is it because he is possessed of worldly goods and children 14 That, when Our revelations are recited unto him, he saith: Mere fables of the men of old. 15 We shall brand him upon the muzzle! 16 We have tried them as we tried the owners of a certain orchard, who vowed to harvest all its fruits the next morning, 17 And they made not the exception. 18 A visitor from your Lord circled around the garden during the night while they were asleep 19 so that by the morrow it became barren and bleak. 20 And they called out to each other in the morning, 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "Verily, we have gone astray," 26 Nay, but we are desolate! 27 The best of them said: Did I not say to you, Why do you not glorify (Allah)? 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 Then they began to reproach one another. 30 They said, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than it in exchange. To our Lord we humbly turn' 32 Such is the torment. And the torment of the Hereafter is far greater; if they but knew. 33