The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 for, behold, thou keepest indeed to a sublime way of life; 4 You will see, and they will see, 5 which of you is a prey to madness. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are guided. 7 Therefore do not listen to the deniers. 8 They would like you to relent to them so that they could also relent towards you. 9 And obey not everyone who swears much, and is considered worthless, 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 Gross, and therewithal ignoble. 13 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children 14 and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.” 15 We will soon singe his pig-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 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 as if it were a garden plucked. 20 And they cried out one unto another in the morning, 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones (saying), 23 'No needy man shall enter it today against your will.' 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 (No, we are not lost.) In fact, we have been deprived of everything". 27 Said the most right-minded among them: "Did I not tell you, 'Will you not extol God's limitless glory?'" 28 They said, "Glory be to God, our Lord. We have surely done wrong." 29 Then some of them drew near unto others, self-reproaching. 30 They said: “Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than this in place thereof. Lo! we beseech our Lord. 32 Such is the punishment [of this world]. And the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they only knew. 33