The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen and the (Record) which (men) write,- 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 And verily, for you (O Muhammad SAW) will be an endless reward. 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 Soon wilt thou 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 hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 8 Who would have had thee compromise, that they may compromise. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 (Habitually) hindering (all) good, transgressing beyond bounds, deep in sin, 12 Cruel, after all that base-born (of illegitimate birth), 13 Simply because he possesses wealth and children. 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 Soon We will brand him on the 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 were not willing to set aside a portion (for the poor). 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 So the (garden) became, by the morning, like a dark and desolate spot, (whose fruit had been gathered). 20 (Then) in the morning they called out to one another, saying: 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 No needy man shall enter it to-day against you. 24 And they went out betimes determined in purpose. 25 When they saw the garden, they said, "Surely we have lost our way. 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 One who was temperate among them, said: "Did I not say: 'Why don't you priase God?'" 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: "Woe to us! Verily, we were Taghun (transgressors and disobedient, etc.) 31 Belike our Lord may exchange for us better garden than this; verily we are unto our Lord beseechers. 32 Such was their punishment. But the punishment of the Everlasting Life is much greater, if they but knew. 33