The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write. 1 (Muhammad), you are not insane, thanks to the bounty of your Lord. 2 You will certainly receive a never-ending reward. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 So you shall see, and they (too) shall see, 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 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 do not yield to the rejecters. 8 They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate. 9 Do not yield to any contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 or to one who places obstacles in the way of good being done or to the wicked transgressor, 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.” 15 We shall brand him on his nose. 16 We have tested them in the same way as we tested the dwellers of the garden (in Yemen) when they swore to pluck all the fruits of the garden in the morning, 17 And they made not the exception. 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 And in the morning it was as if plucked. 20 At daybreak they called to each other: 21 Saying: Run unto your field if ye would pluck (the fruit). 22 So they set out, while lowering their voices, 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 They left early in the morning bent on this purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 (Then they said): "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" 27 The best among them said, “Did I not tell you, ‘Why do you not proclaim His purity?’” 28 They said, "All glory belongs to God. We have certainly been unjust". 29 Then they started blaming one another, 30 Saying: "Alas the woe, we were iniquitous. 31 Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us [one] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." 32 Such was the punishment. And verily the punishment of the Hereafter is greater if they did but know. 33