The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, 1 By your Lord's Grace, you are not afflicted with madness, 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 Surely, you (Prophet Muhammad) are of a great morality. 4 So you will see and they will see 5 Which of you is the afflicted [by a devil]. 6 Verily your Lord knows those who have gone astray from His path, and He knows those who are guided on the way. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 They wish that in some way you may yield, so they too might soften their stand. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 moreover ignoble, 13 Because he possesses wealth and (numerous) sons. 14 When you recite Our revelations to him, he says: "These are fables of long ago." 15 Anon We shall brand him on snout. 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 and they added not the saving words. 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 In the morning they called to one another, 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 So they went, while they consulted together secretly, 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 And they went out betimes determined in purpose. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 (Then they said): "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" 27 Said one of them, more just (than the rest): "Did I not say to you, 'Why not glorify (Allah)?'" 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then some of them drew near unto others, self-reproaching. 30 They said, 'Woe, alas for us! Truly, we were insolent. 31 "It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this: for we do turn to Him (in repentance)!" 32 Such is the torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33