The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by what you write, 1 You are not demented by the grace of your Lord. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 And thou (standest) on an exalted standard of character. 4 You will see, and they will see, 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 Therefore, do not obey those who belie, 8 They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 Detracter, spreader abroad of slanders, 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 Because he possesses wealth and (numerous) sons. 14 and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.” 15 We will brand him on the 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 they added not the saving words. 18 So an envoy from your Lord completed his round upon the garden, whilst they were sleeping. 19 And it became as though reaped. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 27 Said the most moderate of them, 'Did I not say to you, "Why do you not give glory?"' 28 They said, "Exalted is our Lord! Indeed, we were wrongdoers." 29 Then they turned, one against another, in reproach. 30 They said 'Woe to us, truly we were insolent' 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than this in place thereof. Lo! we beseech our Lord. 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33