The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write. 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 And verily thou art of a high and noble disposition. 4 Soon wilt thou see, and they will see, 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 Then do not obey the deniers. 8 they would like thee to be soft [with them,] so that they might be soft [with thee]. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 or to one who places obstacles in the way of good being done or to the wicked transgressor, 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 Because he is a possessor of wealth and children, 14 When you recite Our revelations to him, he says: "These are fables of long ago." 15 We shall brand him on the nose. 16 [As for such sinners,] behold, We [but] try them as We tried the owners of a certain garden who vowed that they would surely harvest its fruit on the morrow, 17 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord came upon it while they slept 19 so that by the morrow it became barren and bleak. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 "Go early to your farms, if you want to pluck the fruits". 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 'No needy man shall enter it today against your will.' 24 And they went out betimes determined in purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 Nay, but we are desolate! 27 The best among them said: "Did I not tell you: why do you not say: Insha' Allah (If Allah will)." 28 They answered: "Limitless in His glory is our Sustainer! Verily, we were doing wrong!" 29 Some of them started to blame others. 30 They said 'Woe to us, truly we were insolent' 31 “Hopefully, our Lord will give us a better replacement than this – we now incline towards our Lord.” 32 Such is the chastisement; and the chastisement of the world to come, is assuredly greater, did they but know. 33