The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by what you write, 1 You are not demented by the grace of your Lord. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 And verily, you (O Muhammad SAW) are on an exalted standard of character. 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are guided. 7 So obey thou not those who cry lies. 8 They wish that thou shouldst compromise, then they would compromise. 9 And do not yield to any contemptible swearer, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.” 15 We shall brand him on the muzzle. 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 made no allowance [for the will of God]: 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. 25 When they saw the garden, they said, "Surely we have lost our way. 26 [and then,] "Nay, but we have been rendered destitute!" 27 The best among them said: Said I not unto you: Why glorify ye not (Allah)? 28 They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.” 29 Some of them started to blame others. 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 torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33