The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by what you write, 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 surely thou art upon a mighty morality. 4 So thou shalt see, and they will see, 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has gone astray from His way, and He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 They wish that in some way you may yield, so they too might soften their stand. 9 Do not yield to any contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 14 When to him are rehearsed Our Signs, "Tales of the ancients", he cries! 15 We shall mark him upon his nose! 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 And made no exception (for the Will of Allah); 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 So in the morning it became as if harvested. 20 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 They all left, whispering to one another, 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 They went betimes, strong in (this) purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 Rather, we have been deprived." 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 They said, “Purity is to our Lord – we have indeed been unjust.” 29 Then they approached one another, blaming each other. 30 [In the end] they said: "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we did behave outrageously! 31 [But] it may be that our Sustainer will grant us something better instead: for, verily, unto our Sustainer do we turn with hope!" 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33