The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 And indeed, you are of a great moral character. 4 Soon you will see, as will they, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Verily thy Lord! He is the best Knower of him who strayeth from His path, and He is the best Knower of the guided one. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate. 9 And obey not everyone who swears much, and is considered worthless, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 moreover ignoble, 13 Simply because he possesses wealth and children. 14 When Our signs are recited to him, he says, 'Fairy-tales of the ancients!' 15 We shall mark him upon his nose! 16 We have indeed tested them the way We had tested the owners of the garden when they swore that they would reap its harvest the next morning. 17 without making any allowance (for the will of Allah). 18 A visitor from your Lord circled around the garden during the night while they were asleep 19 So by the morning it seemed as though picked clean. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So off they went, whispering to one another: 23 "Let no beggar come to the garden". 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 But as soon as they beheld the orchard, (they cried out): “We have certainly lost the way; 26 Rather, we have been deprived." 27 Said the most moderate of them, 'Did I not say to you, "Why do you not give glory?"' 28 They said: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong!" 29 And they advanced one upon another, blaming each other. 30 They said, 'Woe, alas for us! Truly, we were insolent. 31 Maybe, our Lord will give us instead one better than it; surely to our Lord do we make our humble petition. 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33