The Pen (Al-Qalam)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by what you 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 verily thou art of a high and noble disposition. 4 You will see and they will also see 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 Then do not obey the deniers. 8 they would like thee to be soft [with them,] so that they might be soft [with thee]. 9 And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 Crude, and above all, mean and infamous, 13 Because he possesses wealth and (numerous) sons. 14 When to him are rehearsed Our Signs, "Tales of the ancients", he cries! 15 Soon We will brand him on the nose. 16 Verily We! We have proved them even as We proved the fellows of a garden when they sware that they would surely reap it in the morning. 17 Without saying: Insha' Allah (If Allah will). 18 Then there passed by on the (garden) something (fire) from your Lord at night and burnt it while they were asleep. 19 so that by the morrow it became barren and bleak. 20 In the morning they called to one another, 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 They were resolved to repel the beggars. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 27 The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?” 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then some of them drew near unto others, self-reproaching. 30 [In the end] they said: "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we did behave outrageously! 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 is the punishment; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is the greatest, if only they knew! 33