The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen and the (Record) which (men) write,- 1 You are not, [O Muhammad], by the favor of your Lord, a madman. 2 Most surely, you will have a never ending reward. 3 For you are truly of a sublime character. 4 Soon you will see, as will they, 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 do not comply with those who deny: 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 And obey not everyone who swears much, and is considered worthless, 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 Hinderer of the good, transgressor, sinful, 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 When you recite Our revelations to him, he says: "These are fables of long ago." 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 16 Verily We have tried them as We tried the People of the Garden, when they resolved to gather the fruits of the (garden) in the morning. 17 and made no allowance [for the will of God]: 18 Then there passed by on the (garden) something (fire) from your Lord at night and burnt it while they were asleep. 19 So the (garden) became black by the morning, like a pitch dark night (in complete ruins). 20 And they called out to each other in the morning, 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 rather, we are utterly ruined.” 27 A reasonable one among them said, "Did I not tell you that you should glorify God?" 28 They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.” 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 They said: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 31 It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better than it; to our Lord we humbly turn.' 32 Such is the torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33