The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 There is surely reward unending for you, 3 And thou (standest) on an exalted standard of character. 4 So you will see and they will see 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 6 Indeed your Lord well knows those who have strayed from His path, and He well knows those who are upon guidance. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 Do not yield to one persistent in swearing, 10 Detracter, spreader abroad of slanders, 11 Hinderer of the good, transgressor, malefactor 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 We will brand him upon the snout. 16 Surely We will try them as We tried the owners of the garden, when they swore that they would certainly cut off the produce in the morning, 17 Without saying: Insha' Allah (If Allah will). 18 Thereupon a calamity from your Lord passed over it while they were asleep, 19 and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested. 20 And they called one another at morning, 21 "Go early to your farms, if you want to pluck the fruits". 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 When they saw (and did not recognise it) they said: "Surely we have lost the way. 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 They said: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong!" 29 Then they approached one another, blaming each other. 30 Said they: O woe to us! surely we were inordinate: 31 Maybe our Lord will give us better than this. We turn to our Lord in supplication." 32 Such is the punishment (in this life), but truly, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew. 33