The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, 1 You are not demented by the grace of your Lord. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are guided. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 They would like you to relent to them so that they could also relent towards you. 9 Do not heed a contemptible swearer, 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 13 Because he possesses wealth and sons. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, “These are stories of earlier people.” 15 We shall mark him upon 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 and made no allowance [for the will of God]: 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 And in the morning it was as if plucked. 20 Now when they rose at early morn, they called unto one another, 21 "Go ye to your tilth (betimes) in the morning, if ye would gather the fruits." 22 So they departed, whispering together, 23 "Indeed, no needy person shall enter it today [and come] upon you [unawares,]" 24 They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. 25 When they saw the garden, they said, "Surely we have lost our way. 26 Nay! we are made to suffer privation. 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 They said, "All glory belongs to God. We have certainly been unjust". 29 Some of them started to blame others. 30 They said: Alas for us! In truth we were outrageous. 31 Maybe our Lord will give us a better orchard in its place; to our Lord do we penitently turn.” 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