The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 And verily, thine shall be a reward neverending 3 for, behold, thou keepest indeed to a sublime way of life; 4 You shall see and they will see 5 Who is distracted. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 Then do not obey the deniers. 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 Do not yield to one persistent in swearing, 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 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 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 When Our signs are recited to him, he says, 'Fairy-tales of the ancients!' 15 We will soon singe his pig-nose. 16 We have tried you as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed to gather the fruits in the 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 the garden was turned into a barren desert. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones, (saying)- 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit). 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 nay, rather we have been robbed!' 27 The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?” 28 'Exaltations to Allah, our Lord' they said, 'We were truly harmdoers' 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 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 is the chastisement; and the chastisement of the world to come, is assuredly greater, did they but know. 33