The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 You are not, [O Muhammad], by the favor of your Lord, a madman. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 So you will see and they will see 5 Who is distracted. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 Who would have had thee compromise, that they may compromise. 9 Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger, 10 The excessively insulting one, spreader of spite. 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 Is it because he is possessed of worldly goods and children 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, "Legends of the former peoples." 15 We will brand him on the nose. 16 We have put them [i.e., the Makkans] to test even as We put to test the owners of the orchard when they vowed that they would gather the fruit of their orchard in the morning, 17 And they did not say, “If Allah wills”. 18 Then there passed by on the (garden) something (fire) from your Lord at night and burnt it while they were asleep. 19 So the (garden) became, by the morning, like a dark and desolate spot, (whose fruit had been gathered). 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 They all left, whispering to one another, 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 And in the morning they went, having the power to prevent. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 No, rather, we have been prevented' 27 (Whereupon) the best among them said: 'Did I not say to you to exalt (Allah)' 28 They answered: "Limitless in His glory is our Sustainer! Verily, we were doing wrong!" 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 a better orchard in its place; to our Lord do we penitently turn.” 32 Such was their punishment, [in this life]. But the punishment of the life to come is much more severe, if only they knew it! 33