The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 You will certainly receive a never-ending reward. 3 surely thou art upon a mighty morality. 4 You will see and they will also see 5 which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Verily your Lord knows those who have gone astray from His path, and He knows those who are guided on the way. 7 Therefore do not listen to the deniers. 8 they wish you would compromise, then, they would compromise. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 backbiter, going about with slander, 11 Who hinders men from (doing) good, the transgressor, the iniquitous, 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 Because he possesses wealth and sons. 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 16 Lo! We have tried them as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed that they would pluck its fruit next morning, 17 without saying, "If it be God's will." 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 So by the morning it seemed as though picked clean. 20 And they called one another at morning, 21 Saying: Run unto your field if ye would pluck (the fruit). 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 When they saw (and did not recognise it) they said: "Surely we have lost the way. 26 Rather, we have been deprived." 27 A reasonable one among them said, "Did I not tell you that you should glorify God?" 28 They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.” 29 Some of them started to blame others. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 31 Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us [one] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." 32 Such is the punishment (in this life), but truly, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew. 33