The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen, and what they inscribe, 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 You will certainly receive a never-ending reward. 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 Anon thou wilt see and they will see. 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Indeed your Lord well knows those who have strayed from His path, and He well knows those who are upon guidance. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant. 9 Nor ever listen to any excessive oath maker, ignoble person. 10 Defamer, going about with slander 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 Foul mouthed, and in addition to all this, of improper lineage. 13 or that because he may possess wealth and children. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 We will soon singe his pig-nose. 16 We have tried them as We tried the owners of the garden who had sworn that in the morning they would reap it, 17 Without making exception. 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested. 20 Then they called out one to another as soon as the morning broke, 21 Saying: Run unto your field if ye would pluck (the fruit). 22 So they went, while they consulted together secretly, 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Lo! we are in error! 26 [and then,] "Nay, but we have been rendered destitute!" 27 One who was temperate among them, said: "Did I not say: 'Why don't you priase God?'" 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 Then they turned, one against another, in blaming. 30 They said, “Woe to us – we were indeed rebellious.” 31 [But] it may be that our Sustainer will grant us something better instead: for, verily, unto our Sustainer do we turn with hope!" 32 Such was their punishment. But the punishment of the Everlasting Life is much greater, if they but knew. 33