The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 Most surely, you will have a never ending reward. 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 So you shall see, and they (too) shall see, 5 Who is distracted. 6 Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has gone astray from His way, and He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided. 7 So hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 8 They wish that thou shouldst compromise, then they would compromise. 9 Nor ever listen to any excessive oath maker, ignoble person. 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 13 Is it because he is possessed of worldly goods and children 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 Soon We will brand him on 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 saying, "If it be God's will." 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 Saying: "Go to your tilth in the morning, if you would pluck the fruits." 22 Thus they launched forth, whispering unto one another, 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. 25 But as soon as they beheld [the garden and could not recognize] it, they exclaimed, "Surely we have lost our way!" 26 (Then they said): "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" 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 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 They said, "Woe to us. We have been arrogant. 31 Perhaps our Lord will replace it with a better garden. We turn in repentance to our Lord". 32 Such is the punishment (in this life), but truly, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew. 33