The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by that which they inscribe. 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 And most surely you shall have a reward never to be cut off. 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 So you will soon see, and they too will see, 5 #NAME? 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 So obey thou not those who cry lies. 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 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 Hinderer of the good, transgressor, sinful, 12 Gross, and therewithal ignoble. 13 Because he is owner of riches and children. 14 When to him are rehearsed Our Signs, "Tales of the ancients", he cries! 15 We will soon singe his pig-nose. 16 Verily We! We have proved them even as We proved the fellows of a garden when they sware that they would surely reap it in the morning. 17 But made no reservation, ("If it be Allah's Will"). 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 So it became as black, barren land. 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 Saying: go out betimes to your tilth if ye would reap. 22 So they went off, while whispering to one another. 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 Aye! it is we who are deprived! 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 They said, "All glory belongs to God. We have certainly been unjust". 29 And they advanced one upon another, blaming each other. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 31 Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us [one] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33