The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen and the (Record) which (men) write,- 1 (Muhammad), you are not insane, thanks to the bounty of your Lord. 2 And verily, thine shall be a reward neverending 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 So you will soon see, and they too will see, 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 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 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 Hinderer of the good, transgressor, malefactor 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 just because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, “These are stories of earlier people.” 15 We shall mark him upon 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 And made no exception (for the Will of Allah); 18 So there came upon the garden an affliction from your Lord while they were asleep. 19 so that by the morrow it became barren and bleak. 20 Then they cried out unto each other in the morning. 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 So they went off, while whispering to one another. 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 And they went forth early, determined upon their purpose. 25 When they saw (and did not recognise it) they said: "Surely we have lost the way. 26 No, rather, we have been prevented' 27 Said the most right-minded among them: "Did I not tell you, 'Will you not extol God's limitless glory?'" 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 And they advanced one upon another, blaming each other. 30 They said: “Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed. 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