The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 Thou art not, for thy Lord's favour unto thee, a madman. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 Anon thou wilt see and they will see. 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Verily, thy Sustainer alone is fully aware as to who has strayed from His path, Just as He alone is fully aware of those who have found the right way. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 they wish you would compromise, then, they would compromise. 9 And obey not thou any swearer ignominous. 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 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 mark him upon his nose! 16 We have tried them as we tried the owners of a certain orchard, who vowed to harvest all its fruits the next morning, 17 without adding to their swearing, (Allah willing, InshaAllah). 18 Then, a visitation from your Lord came down upon it while they slept, 19 And in the morning it was as if plucked. 20 And they cried out one unto another in the morning, 21 Saying: go out betimes to your tilth if ye would reap. 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 “Make sure that no needy person enters your garden this day.” 24 And they went early in determination, [assuming themselves] able. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 27 The best of them said: Did I not say to you, Why do you not glorify (Allah)? 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they began to reproach one another. 30 They said: Alas for us! In truth we were outrageous. 31 Maybe our Lord will give us better than this. We turn to our Lord in supplication." 32 Such was their punishment, [in this life]. But the punishment of the life to come is much more severe, if only they knew it! 33