The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, 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 verily, thine shall be a reward neverending 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 You shall see and they will see 5 Which of you is the afflicted [by a devil]. 6 Verily it is thy Lord that knoweth best, which (among men) hath strayed from His Path: and He knoweth best those who receive (true) Guidance. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate. 9 And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 One who excessively forbids the good, transgressor, sinner. 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 or that because he may possess wealth and children. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, “These are stories of earlier people.” 15 We shall brand him upon the muzzle! 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 And were not willing to set aside a portion (for the poor). 18 A calamity from your Lord befell the orchard as they slept. 19 And in the morning it was as if plucked. 20 Now when they rose at early morn, they called unto one another, 21 saying, "Be quick to reach your orchard, if you want to gather all your fruits." 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones, (saying)- 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 And they went early in determination, [assuming themselves] able. 25 But as soon as they beheld [the garden and could not recognize] it, they exclaimed, "Surely we have lost our way!" 26 (No, we are not lost.) In fact, we have been deprived of everything". 27 The best among them said, “Did I not tell you, ‘Why do you not proclaim His purity?’” 28 They said: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong!" 29 Then they turned to each other reproaching. 30 They said, 'Woe, alas for us! Truly, we were insolent. 31 Maybe our Lord will give us a better orchard in its place; to our Lord do we penitently turn.” 32 Such was their punishment. But the punishment of the Everlasting Life is much greater, if they but knew. 33