The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and that which they write (therewith), 1 You (O Muhammad SAW) are not, by the Grace of your Lord, a madman. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 You will see, and they will see, 5 which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has gone astray from His way, and He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 they wish you would compromise, then, they would compromise. 9 And do not yield to any contemptible swearer, 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 the crude of low character 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 that, whenever Our messages are conveyed to him, such a one says, "Fables of ancient times"? 15 We will brand him upon the snout. 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 made no allowance [for the will of God]: 18 So there came upon the garden an affliction from your Lord while they were asleep. 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 "Go ye to your tilth (betimes) in the morning, if ye would gather the fruits." 22 Thus they launched forth, whispering unto one another, 23 "Indeed, no needy person shall enter it today [and come] upon you [unawares,]" 24 They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit). 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 They answered: "Limitless in His glory is our Sustainer! Verily, we were doing wrong!" 29 Then some of them advanced against others, blaming each other. 30 They said: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 31 We hope that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this. Truly, we turn to our Lord (wishing for good that He may forgive our sins, and reward us in the Hereafter)." 32 Such is the punishment (in this life), but truly, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew. 33