The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 you are not, because of the favor of your Lord, mad. 2 Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 So very soon, you will see and they too will realise – 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 They only want that you should relent, so that they may come to terms. 9 Do not heed a contemptible swearer, 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 Hinderer of the good, transgressor, sinful, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 Because he possesses wealth and sons. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 We will brand him on the nose. 16 We have tested them in the same way as we tested the dwellers of the garden (in Yemen) when they swore to pluck all the fruits of the garden in the morning, 17 And they did not say, “If Allah wills”. 18 A visitor from your Lord circled around the garden during the night while they were asleep 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 And they called one another at morning, 21 "Go early to your farms, if you want to pluck the fruits". 22 So they went, while they consulted together secretly, 23 "Let no beggar come to the garden". 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 But as soon as they beheld [the garden and could not recognize] it, they exclaimed, "Surely we have lost our way!" 26 Nay, but we are desolate! 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 They said, 'Glory be to God, our Lord; truly, we were evildoers.' 29 Then they began to reproach one another. 30 They said: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 31 Maybe our Lord will give us a better orchard in its place; to our Lord do we penitently turn.” 32 Such is the punishment [of this world]. And the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they only knew. 33