The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, 1 Thou art not, for thy Lord's favour unto thee, a madman. 2 Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; 3 And verily thou art of a high and noble disposition. 4 And thou wilt see and they will see 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 Then do not obey the deniers. 8 Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant. 9 Do not yield to any contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 Who hinders men from (doing) good, the transgressor, the iniquitous, 12 ill-mannered, and moraly corrupt 13 or that because he may possess wealth and children. 14 When to him are rehearsed Our Signs, "Tales of the ancients", he cries! 15 We shall brand him on the muzzle. 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 But made no reservation, ("If it be Allah's Will"). 18 Then, a visitation from your Lord came down upon it while they slept, 19 So in the morning it became as if harvested. 20 In the morning they called to one another, 21 "If you want to gather the fruits, let us go early to the plantation." 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones, (saying)- 23 “Make sure that no needy person enters your garden this day.” 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 The best of them said: Did I not say to you, Why do you not glorify (Allah)? 28 They said: Glorified be our Lord! Lo! we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they approached one another, blaming each other. 30 They said: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than it in exchange. To our Lord we humbly turn' 32 Such was their punishment. But the punishment of the Everlasting Life is much greater, if they but knew. 33