The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen, and what they inscribe, 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 for, behold, thou keepest indeed to a sublime way of life; 4 You will see, and they will see, 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Indeed your Lord well knows those who have strayed from His path, and He well knows those who are upon guidance. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 They wish that you would soften [in your position], so they would soften [toward you]. 9 And obey not everyone who swears much, and is considered worthless, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 Gross, and therewithal ignoble. 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 his 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 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 So an envoy from your Lord completed his round upon the garden, whilst they were sleeping. 19 So it became as black, barren land. 20 And they called out to each other in the morning, 21 'Come forth betimes upon your tillage, if you would pluck!' 22 So they went off, saying one unto another in low tones: 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 And they went early in determination, [assuming themselves] able. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Lo! we are in error! 26 (No, we are not lost.) In fact, we have been deprived of everything". 27 The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?” 28 They answered: "Limitless in His glory is our Sustainer! Verily, we were doing wrong!" 29 And they advanced one upon another, blaming each other. 30 They said, “Woe to us – we were indeed rebellious.” 31 “Hopefully, our Lord will give us a better replacement than this – we now incline towards our Lord.” 32 Such was the punishment. And verily the punishment of the Hereafter is greater if they did but know. 33