The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 You have attained a high moral standard. 4 Soon you will see, as will they, 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate. 9 And obey not thou any swearer ignominous. 10 The excessively insulting one, spreader of spite. 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 Because he is owner of riches and children. 14 and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.” 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 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 Then a visitation from thy Lord came upon it while they slept 19 so that by the morrow it became barren and bleak. 20 And they called one another at morning, 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 They went betimes, strong in (this) purpose. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "Verily, we have gone astray," 26 Nay! we are made to suffer privation. 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They said, "Exalted is our Lord! Indeed, we were wrongdoers." 29 Then they turned, one against another, in reproach. 30 They said, 'Woe, alas for us! Truly, we were insolent. 31 Perhaps our Lord will replace it with a better garden. We turn in repentance to our Lord". 32 Such is Our chastisement; and the punishment of the Hereafter will be greater, if only they knew! 33