The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 So you will see and they will see 5 which of you is a prey to madness. 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 So hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 8 They would like you to relent to them so that they could also relent towards you. 9 And obey not everyone who swears much, and is considered worthless, 10 Defamer, going about with slander 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 13 just because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, "Legends of the former peoples." 15 We will soon singe his pig-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 made not the exception. 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord came upon it while they slept 19 and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. 20 And they called one another at morning, 21 That, “Go to your fields at early morn, if you want to harvest.” 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 The best among them said: Said I not unto you: Why glorify ye not (Allah)? 28 They said, "All glory belongs to God. We have certainly been unjust". 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said: "Woe to us! Verily, we were Taghun (transgressors and disobedient, etc.) 31 “Hopefully, our Lord will give us a better replacement than this – we now incline towards our Lord.” 32 Such was the punishment. And verily the punishment of the Hereafter is greater if they did but know. 33