The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 You are not, [O Muhammad], by the favor of your Lord, a madman. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 Anon thou wilt see and they will see. 5 which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 So obey thou not those who cry lies. 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 And do not obey every mean swearer, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 13 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 14 When you recite Our revelations to him, he says: "These are fables of long ago." 15 We shall brand him on the muzzle. 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 Thereupon a calamity from your Lord passed over it while they were asleep, 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 (Then) in the morning they called out to one another, saying: 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they set out, while lowering their voices, 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 Aye! it is we who are deprived! 27 The best among them said, “Did I not tell you, ‘Why do you not proclaim His purity?’” 28 They said: Glory be to our Lord, surely we were unjust. 29 Then they turned, one against another, in reproach. 30 Saying: "Alas the woe, we were iniquitous. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than it in exchange. To our Lord we humbly turn' 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33