The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful
۞ Nun. CONSIDER the pen, and all that they write [therewith]! 1 (Muhammad), you are not insane, thanks to the bounty of your Lord. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 You will see, and they will see, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are guided. 7 Therefore do not listen to the deniers. 8 They wish that thou shouldst compromise, then they would compromise. 9 And yield not to any mean swearer 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 One who excessively forbids the good, transgressor, sinner. 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 just because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, “These are stories of earlier people.” 15 Soon We will brand him on the nose. 16 We have tried them as we tried the owners of a certain orchard, who vowed to harvest all its fruits the next morning, 17 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 A calamity from your Lord befell the orchard as they slept. 19 and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested. 20 And they called one another at morning, 21 Saying: go out betimes to your tilth if ye would reap. 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 "Let not a single indigent person break in upon you into the (garden) this day." 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 The best among them said: Said I not unto you: Why glorify ye not (Allah)? 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they started blaming one another, 30 Said they: O woe to us! surely we were inordinate: 31 Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us [one] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." 32 Such is Our chastisement; and the punishment of the Hereafter will be greater, if only they knew! 33