The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 And verily, thine shall be a reward neverending 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 So you will see, and they will realise, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Verily it is thy Lord that knoweth best, which (among men) hath strayed from His Path: and He knoweth best those who receive (true) Guidance. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 They would like you to relent to them so that they could also relent towards you. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 Detracter, spreader abroad of slanders, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 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 shall brand him on the nose. 16 Surely We will try them as We tried the owners of the garden, when they swore that they would certainly cut off the produce in the morning, 17 without saying, "If it be God's will." 18 Then there came on the (garden) a visitation from thy Lord, (which swept away) all around, while they were asleep. 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 And they cried out one unto another in the morning, 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones (saying), 23 "Indeed, no needy person shall enter it today [and come] upon you [unawares,]" 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 Said the most moderate of them, 'Did I not say to you, "Why do you not give glory?"' 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 – we were indeed rebellious.” 31 May be our Lord will give us a better orchard in its stead; we turn to Him." 32 SUCH is the suffering [with which We try some people in this world]; but greater by far will be the suffering [which sinners shall have to bear] in the life to come - if they but knew it! 33