The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by what you write, 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; 3 And most surely you conform (yourself) to sublime morality. 4 So very soon, you will see and they too will realise – 5 Which of you is the demented. 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 So obey thou not those who cry lies. 8 They only want that you should relent, so that they may come to terms. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 13 or that because he may possess wealth and children. 14 that, whenever Our messages are conveyed to him, such a one says, "Fables of ancient times"? 15 We shall brand him on the muzzle. 16 We have put them [i.e., the Makkans] to test even as We put to test the owners of the orchard when they vowed that they would gather the fruit of their orchard in the morning, 17 And they made not the exception. 18 So an envoy from your Lord completed his round upon the garden, whilst they were sleeping. 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 “Hurry to your orchard if you would gather its fruit.” 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 "Indeed, no needy person shall enter it today [and come] upon you [unawares,]" 24 They were resolved to repel the beggars. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 The best among them said: "Did I not tell you: why do you not say: Insha' Allah (If Allah will)." 28 They said: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong!" 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 They said, "Woe to us. We have been arrogant. 31 Belike our Lord may exchange for us better garden than this; verily we are unto our Lord beseechers. 32 Such was their punishment. But the punishment of the Everlasting Life is much greater, if they but knew. 33