The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 By your Lord's Grace, you are not afflicted with madness, 2 Most surely, you will have a never ending reward. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 You will see and they will also see 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 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 Hence, defer not to [the likes and dislikes of] those who give the lie to the truth: 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger, 10 back-biting, gossiping, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 or that because he may possess wealth and children. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 Soon shall We brand him on his snout. 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 without adding to their swearing, (Allah willing, InshaAllah). 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 So the (garden) became black by the morning, like a pitch dark night (in complete ruins). 20 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 "If you want to gather the fruits, let us go early to the plantation." 22 So they set out, while lowering their voices, 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 They left early in the morning bent on this purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they began to reproach one another. 30 They said: “Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed. 31 May be our Lord will give us a better orchard in its stead; we turn to Him." 32 SUCH is the suffering [with which We try some people in this world]; but greater by far will be the suffering [which sinners shall have to bear] in the life to come - if they but knew it! 33