The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Nun. By the Pen, and what they inscribe, 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 You have attained a high moral standard. 4 So thou shalt see, and they will see, 5 which of you is a prey to madness. 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 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 They wish that you should be pliant so they (too) would be pliant. 9 Do not yield to any contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 The excessively insulting one, spreader of spite. 11 Who hinders men from (doing) good, the transgressor, the iniquitous, 12 Gross, and therewithal ignoble. 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 shall brand him on his nose. 16 We have tested them in the same way as we tested the dwellers of the garden (in Yemen) when they swore to pluck all the fruits of the garden in the morning, 17 But did not add: "If God may please." 18 So there came upon the garden an affliction from your Lord while they were asleep. 19 and the garden was turned into a barren desert. 20 In the morning they called to one another, 21 Saying: go out betimes to your tilth if ye would reap. 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 "Let not a single indigent person break in upon you into the (garden) this day." 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw it they said: 'We have surely gone astray. 26 No, rather, we have been prevented' 27 Said one of them, more just (than the rest): "Did I not say to you, 'Why not glorify (Allah)?'" 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 And they came blaming one another. 30 They said: woe unto us! verily we! we have been arrogant. 31 May be our Lord will give us a better orchard in its stead; we turn to Him." 32 Such is the chastisement; and the chastisement of the world to come, is assuredly greater, did they but know. 33