The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 By your Lord's Grace, you are not afflicted with madness, 2 And indeed, for you is a reward uninterrupted. 3 for, behold, thou keepest indeed to a sublime way of life; 4 So you will see and they will see 5 Which of you is afflicted with 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 Hence, defer not to [the likes and dislikes of] those who give the lie to the truth: 8 they would like thee to be soft [with them,] so that they might be soft [with thee]. 9 Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger, 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 Because he possesses wealth and (numerous) sons. 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 We will soon singe his pig-nose. 16 [As for such sinners,] behold, We [but] try them as We tried the owners of a certain garden who vowed that they would surely harvest its fruit on the morrow, 17 And were not willing to set aside a portion (for the poor). 18 So there came upon the garden an affliction from your Lord while they were asleep. 19 And it became as though reaped. 20 Now when they rose at early morn, they called unto one another, 21 "Go early to your farms, if you want to pluck the fruits". 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones (saying), 23 'No needy man shall enter it today against your will.' 24 They went betimes, strong in (this) purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "We must have lost our way. 26 [and then,] "Nay, but we have been rendered destitute!" 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They answered: "Limitless in His glory is our Sustainer! Verily, we were doing wrong!" 29 So they came towards each other, blaming. 30 They said: woe unto us! verily we! we have been arrogant. 31 We hope that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this. Truly, we turn to our Lord (wishing for good that He may forgive our sins, and reward us in the Hereafter)." 32 SUCH is the suffering [with which We try some people in this world]; but greater by far will be the suffering [which sinners shall have to bear] in the life to come - if they but knew it! 33