The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 You (O Muhammad SAW) are not, by the Grace of your Lord, a madman. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 for, behold, thou keepest indeed to a sublime way of life; 4 Anon thou wilt see and they will see. 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 they wish you would compromise, then, they would compromise. 9 And obey not thou any swearer ignominous. 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 because he has wealth and sons. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, "Legends of the former peoples." 15 Soon shall We brand (the beast) on the snout! 16 We have tried them as We tried the owners of the garden who had sworn that in the morning they would reap it, 17 without adding to their swearing, (Allah willing, InshaAllah). 18 A calamity from your Lord befell the orchard as they slept. 19 and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 That, “Go to your fields at early morn, if you want to harvest.” 22 So they went off, saying one unto another in low tones: 23 "Let no beggar come to the garden". 24 They went betimes, strong in (this) purpose. 25 Then when they saw it, they said, “We have indeed strayed.” 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 say: Insha' Allah (If Allah will)." 28 They said: Glorified be our Lord! Lo! we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 Said they: O woe to us! surely we were inordinate: 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than it in exchange. To our Lord we humbly turn' 32 Such was their punishment. But the punishment of the Everlasting Life is much greater, if they but knew. 33