The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write. 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 And verily, thine shall be a reward neverending 3 surely thou art upon a mighty morality. 4 So you will see, and they will realise, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Verily your Lord knows those who have gone astray from His path, and He knows those who are guided on the way. 7 So do not yield to the rejecters. 8 Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant. 9 And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 When you recite Our revelations to him, he says: "These are fables of long ago." 15 We will brand him on the nose. 16 Lo! We have tried them as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed that they would pluck its fruit next morning, 17 But did not add: "If God may please." 18 A visitor from your Lord circled around the garden during the night while they were asleep 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 In the morning they called to one another, 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 Thus they launched forth, whispering unto one another, 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 They were resolved to repel the beggars. 25 When they saw (and did not recognise it) they said: "Surely we have lost the way. 26 [and then,] "Nay, but we have been rendered destitute!" 27 The best among them said, “Did I not tell you, ‘Why do you not proclaim His purity?’” 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 Then some of them drew near unto others, self-reproaching. 30 Said they: O woe to us! surely we were inordinate: 31 Perhaps our Lord will replace it with a better garden. We turn in repentance to our Lord". 32 Such is the torment. And the torment of the Hereafter is far greater; if they but knew. 33