The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen and the (Record) which (men) write,- 1 You are not, [O Muhammad], by the favor of your Lord, a madman. 2 Most surely, you will have a never ending reward. 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 You will see, and they will see, 5 Who is distracted. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 Therefore do not listen to the deniers. 8 They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 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 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 We shall mark him upon his nose! 16 [As for such sinners,] behold, We [but] try them as We tried the owners of a certain garden who vowed that they would surely harvest its fruit on the morrow, 17 without making any allowance (for the will of Allah). 18 So an envoy from your Lord completed his round upon the garden, whilst they were sleeping. 19 And it became as though reaped. 20 And they called out to each other in the morning, 21 "Go ye to your tilth (betimes) in the morning, if ye would gather the fruits." 22 So they went, while they consulted together secretly, 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 And in the morning they went, having the power to prevent. 25 But as soon as they beheld [the garden and could not recognize] it, they exclaimed, "Surely we have lost our way!" 26 No, rather, we have been prevented' 27 (Whereupon) the best among them said: 'Did I not say to you to exalt (Allah)' 28 They answered: "Limitless in His glory is our Sustainer! Verily, we were doing wrong!" 29 Then they turned, one against another, in reproach. 30 They said: “Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed. 31 Maybe our Lord will give us a better orchard in its place; to our Lord do we penitently turn.” 32 Such is the torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33