The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by what you write, 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 And verily thou art of a high and noble disposition. 4 Anon thou wilt see and they will see. 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Verily your Lord knows those who have gone astray from His path, and He knows those who are guided on the way. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 Do not yield to one persistent in swearing, 10 or to any defamer or one who spreads slander, 11 One who excessively forbids the good, transgressor, sinner. 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 Is it because he is possessed of worldly goods and children 14 When to him are rehearsed Our Signs, "Tales of the ancients", he cries! 15 We shall mark him upon his nose! 16 Verily, We have tried them as We tried the people of the garden, when they swore to pluck the fruits of the (garden) in the morning, 17 and made no allowance [for the will of God]: 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 So in the morning it became as if harvested. 20 Then they cried out unto each other in the morning. 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So they went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 And they went out betimes determined in purpose. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 Rather, we have been deprived." 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They said, "Exalted is our Lord! Indeed, we were wrongdoers." 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said: Alas for us! In truth we were outrageous. 31 Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us [one] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." 32 Such is Our chastisement; and the punishment of the Hereafter will be greater, if only they knew! 33