The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write. 1 (Muhammad), you are not insane, thanks to the bounty of your Lord. 2 Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; 3 And verily, you (O Muhammad SAW) are on an exalted standard of character. 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Verily it is thy Lord that knoweth best, which (among men) hath strayed from His Path: and He knoweth best those who receive (true) Guidance. 7 So (O Muhammad SAW) obey not the deniers [(of Islamic Monotheism those who belie the Verses of Allah), the Oneness of Allah, and the Messenger of Allah (Muhammad SAW), etc.] 8 They wish that you should compromise (in religion out of courtesy) with them, so they (too) would compromise with you. 9 Do not yield to any contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 Gross, and therewithal ignoble. 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 That, when Our revelations are recited unto him, he saith: Mere fables of the men of old. 15 We shall brand him on his nose. 16 We have tested them in the same way as we tested the dwellers of the garden (in Yemen) when they swore to pluck all the fruits of the garden in the morning, 17 and they added not the saving words. 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 And in the morning it was as if plucked. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 'Come forth betimes upon your tillage, if you would pluck!' 22 So off they went, whispering to one another: 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 Said the most right-minded among them: "Did I not tell you, 'Will you not extol God's limitless glory?'" 28 They said: Glory be to our Lord, surely we were unjust. 29 Then they began to reproach one another. 30 Saying: "Alas the woe, we were iniquitous. 31 Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us [one] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33