The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 surely thou art upon a mighty morality. 4 And thou wilt see and they will see 5 Who is distracted. 6 Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who walk aright. 7 Hence, defer not to [the likes and dislikes of] those who give the lie to the truth: 8 They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate. 9 Nor ever listen to any excessive oath maker, ignoble person. 10 Defamer, going about with slander 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, "Legends of the former peoples." 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 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 they made not the exception. 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 At daybreak they called to each other: 21 Saying: go out betimes to your tilth if ye would reap. 22 So they went, while they consulted together secretly, 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Lo! we are in error! 26 Aye! it is we who are deprived! 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 Saying: "Alas the woe, we were iniquitous. 31 Maybe our Lord will give us better than this. We turn to our Lord in supplication." 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33