The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write. 1 (Muhammad), you are not insane, thanks to the bounty of your Lord. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 And verily thou art of a high and noble disposition. 4 So you will soon see, and they too will see, 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Verily, thy Sustainer alone is fully aware as to who has strayed from His path, Just as He alone is fully aware of those who have found the right way. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 13 Simply because he possesses wealth and children. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 We shall brand him on the nose. 16 Verily We have tried them as We tried the People of the Garden, when they resolved to gather the fruits of the (garden) in the morning. 17 Without saying: Insha' Allah (If Allah will). 18 A calamity from your Lord befell the orchard as they slept. 19 So the (garden) became, by the morning, like a dark and desolate spot, (whose fruit had been gathered). 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones, (saying)- 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 When they saw (and did not recognise it) they said: "Surely we have lost the way. 26 [and then,] "Nay, but we have been rendered destitute!" 27 The best of them said: Did I not say to you, Why do you not glorify (Allah)? 28 They said: Glory be to our Lord, surely we were unjust. 29 Then some of them drew near unto others, self-reproaching. 30 They said: Alas for us! In truth we were outrageous. 31 “Hopefully, our Lord will give us a better replacement than this – we now incline towards our Lord.” 32 Such was the punishment. And verily the punishment of the Hereafter is greater if they did but know. 33