The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by what you write, 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 And verily, for you (O Muhammad SAW) will be an endless reward. 3 You have attained a high moral standard. 4 And thou wilt see and they will see 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 Wherefore obey not thou the beliers. 8 They wish that in some way you may yield, so they too might soften their stand. 9 Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger, 10 The excessively insulting one, spreader of spite. 11 Hinderer of the good, trespasser; sinner. 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 or that because he may possess 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 Surely We will try them as We tried the owners of the garden, when they swore that they would certainly cut off the produce in the morning, 17 Without saying: Insha' Allah (If Allah will). 18 So there came upon the garden an affliction from your Lord while they were asleep. 19 and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. 20 And they called one another at morning, 21 'Come forth betimes upon your tillage, if you would pluck!' 22 So they went off, while whispering to one another. 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They said: Glorified be our Lord! Lo! we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then some of them advanced against others, blaming each other. 30 [In the end] they said: "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we did behave outrageously! 31 Perhaps our Lord will replace it with a better garden. We turn in repentance to our Lord". 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33