The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Nun. CONSIDER the pen, and all that they write [therewith]! 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 And most surely you shall have a reward never to be cut off. 3 And verily, you (O Muhammad SAW) are on an exalted standard of character. 4 So very soon, you will see and they too will realise – 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are guided. 7 So do not yield to the rejecters. 8 They would like you to relent to them so that they could also relent towards you. 9 And do not yield to any contemptible swearer, 10 or to any defamer or one who spreads slander, 11 obstructing virtues, a sinful transgressor, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 Because he is a possessor of wealth and children, 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, “These are stories of earlier people.” 15 We shall brand him on his nose. 16 We have tried them as We tried the owners of the garden who had sworn that in the morning they would reap it, 17 and made no allowance [for the will of God]: 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord came upon it while they slept 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 (Then) in the morning they called out to one another, saying: 21 saying, "Be quick to reach your orchard, if you want to gather all your fruits." 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 “Make sure that no needy person enters your garden this day.” 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 Then when they saw it, they said, “We have indeed strayed.” 26 (No, we are not lost.) In fact, we have been deprived of everything". 27 The best of them said: Did I not say to you, Why do you not glorify (Allah)? 28 'Exaltations to Allah, our Lord' they said, 'We were truly harmdoers' 29 Then they began to reproach one another. 30 They said, 'Woe, alas for us! Truly, we were insolent. 31 "It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this: for we do turn to Him (in repentance)!" 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33