The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen, and what they inscribe, 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 You have attained a high moral standard. 4 So you shall see, and they (too) shall see, 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Surely thy Lord knows very well those who have gone astray from His way, and He knows very well those who are guided. 7 So do not yield to the rejecters. 8 They would like you to relent to them so that they could also relent towards you. 9 Do not yield to one persistent in swearing, 10 The excessively insulting one, spreader of spite. 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 That, when Our revelations are recited unto him, he saith: Mere fables of the men of old. 15 Soon shall We brand him on his snout. 16 We have tried you as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed to gather the fruits in the morning 17 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 So there came upon the garden an affliction from your Lord while they were asleep. 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 Saying: Run unto your field if ye would pluck (the fruit). 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones, (saying)- 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 But as soon as they beheld the orchard, (they cried out): “We have certainly lost the way; 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: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong!" 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 [In the end] they said: "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we did behave outrageously! 31 Maybe our Lord will give us better than this. We turn to our Lord in supplication." 32 Such was their punishment. But the punishment of the Everlasting Life is much greater, if they but knew. 33