The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Nun. By the pen and by what you write, 1 Thou art not, for thy Lord's favour unto thee, a madman. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 So you will see and they will see 5 which of you is a prey to madness. 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 So do not yield to the rejecters. 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 backbiter, going about with slander, 11 Hinderer of the good, trespasser; sinner. 12 ill-mannered, and moraly corrupt 13 just because he has wealth and sons, 14 and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.” 15 We shall brand him on the muzzle. 16 We have tried them as we tried the owners of a certain orchard, who vowed to harvest all its fruits the next morning, 17 without adding to their swearing, (Allah willing, InshaAllah). 18 Thereupon a calamity from your Lord passed over it while they were asleep, 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 Now when they rose at early morn, they called unto one another, 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 "Let not a single indigent person break in upon you into the (garden) this day." 24 And they went out betimes determined in purpose. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "Verily, we have gone astray," 26 rather, we are utterly ruined.” 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 Then they turned, one against another, in blaming. 30 They said: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 31 We hope that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this. Truly, we turn to our Lord (wishing for good that He may forgive our sins, and reward us in the Hereafter)." 32 Such is the chastisement; and the chastisement of the Hereafter is assuredly even greater, if only they knew. 33