The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and that which they write (therewith), 1 By your Lord's Grace, you are not afflicted with madness, 2 Most surely, you will have a never ending reward. 3 And indeed, you are of a great moral character. 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 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 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 They wish that you should compromise (in religion out of courtesy) with them, so they (too) would compromise with you. 9 And obey not everyone who swears much, and is considered worthless, 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 13 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 We shall brand him over 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 saying, "If it be God's will." 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord came upon it while they slept 19 and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. 20 They then called out to each other at daybreak. 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So they set out, while lowering their voices, 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 Indeed, we are utterly ruined!" 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They said, "All glory belongs to God. We have certainly been unjust". 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 31 Maybe, our Lord will give us instead one better than it; surely to our Lord do we make our humble petition. 32 Such is the chastisement, and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is greater, did they but know! 33