The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 And indeed, you are of a great moral character. 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who walk aright. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 They would like you to relent to them so that they could also relent towards you. 9 Nor ever listen to any excessive oath maker, ignoble person. 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 Who hinders men from (doing) good, the transgressor, the iniquitous, 12 Crude, and above all, mean and infamous, 13 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 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 Now We have tried them, even as We tried the owners of the garden when they swore they would pluck in the morning 17 And were not willing to set aside a portion (for the poor). 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 So the (garden) became, by the morning, like a dark and desolate spot, (whose fruit had been gathered). 20 And they called out to each other in the morning, 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 They left early in the morning bent on this purpose. 25 When they saw the garden, they said, "Surely we have lost our way. 26 Nay! we are made to suffer privation. 27 The best among them said: "Did I not tell you: why do you not say: Insha' Allah (If Allah will)." 28 'Exaltations to Allah, our Lord' they said, 'We were truly harmdoers' 29 So they came towards each other, blaming. 30 They said: woe unto us! verily we! we have been arrogant. 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 torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33