The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 thou art not, by the blessing of thy Lord, a man possessed. 2 And indeed, for you is a reward uninterrupted. 3 And verily thou art of a high and noble disposition. 4 So you will see and they will see 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Surely thy Lord knows very well those who have gone astray from His way, and He knows very well those who are guided. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 they wish you would compromise, then, they would compromise. 9 And do not obey every mean swearer, 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 Hinderer of the good, transgressor, sinful, 12 ill-mannered, and moraly corrupt 13 or that because he may possess wealth and children. 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 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 saying: Insha' Allah (If Allah will). 18 So there came upon the garden an affliction from your Lord while they were asleep. 19 Then in the morning it became as though it had been reaped. 20 They then called out to each other at daybreak. 21 “Hurry to your orchard if you would gather its fruit.” 22 So they went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 The best among them said: Said I not unto you: Why glorify ye not (Allah)? 28 'Exaltations to Allah, our Lord' they said, 'We were truly harmdoers' 29 Some of them started to blame others. 30 They said, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. 31 Perhaps our Lord will replace it with a better garden. We turn in repentance to our Lord". 32 Such was their punishment, [in this life]. But the punishment of the life to come is much more severe, if only they knew it! 33