The Pen (Al-Qalam)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen, and what they inscribe, 1 (Muhammad), you are not insane, thanks to the bounty of your Lord. 2 Most surely, you will have a never ending reward. 3 For you are truly of a sublime character. 4 So you will see and they will see 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are guided. 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 any contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 Hinderer of the good, transgressor, malefactor 12 the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble; 13 Simply because he possesses wealth and children. 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 We will brand him upon the snout. 16 Verily We have tried them as We tried the People of the Garden, when they resolved to gather the fruits of the (garden) in the morning. 17 And made no exception (for the Will of Allah); 18 Then a calamity from your Lord fell upon it, but they remained fast asleep. 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 Then they called out one to another as soon as the morning broke, 21 "Go ye to your tilth (betimes) in the morning, if ye would gather the fruits." 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones (saying), 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 But as soon as they beheld [the garden and could not recognize] it, they exclaimed, "Surely we have lost our way!" 26 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 And they came blaming one another. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 31 Maybe our Lord will give us better than this. We turn to our Lord in supplication." 32 Such is the punishment; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is the greatest, if only they knew! 33