The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write. 1 thou art not, by the blessing of thy Lord, a man possessed. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 For you are truly of a sublime character. 4 And thou wilt see and they will see 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 they wish you would compromise, then, they would compromise. 9 And do not obey every mean swearer, 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 ill-mannered, and moraly corrupt 13 Because he possesses wealth and (numerous) sons. 14 When Our signs are recited to him, he says, 'Fairy-tales of the ancients!' 15 Anon We shall brand him on snout. 16 We have tried you as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed to gather the fruits in the morning 17 But made no reservation, ("If it be Allah's Will"). 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 At daybreak they called to each other: 21 Saying: go out betimes to your tilth if ye would reap. 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 nay, rather we have been robbed!' 27 Said the most moderate of them, 'Did I not say to you, "Why do you not give glory?"' 28 They said: Glorified be our Lord! Lo! we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said: woe unto us! verily we! we have been arrogant. 31 Maybe, our Lord will give us instead one better than it; surely to our Lord do we make our humble petition. 32 Such was their punishment. But the punishment of the Everlasting Life is much greater, if they but knew. 33