The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 thou art not, by the blessing of thy Lord, a man possessed. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 Anon thou wilt see and they will see. 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who walk aright. 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 Do not yield to any contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children 14 When Our revelations are recited to him, he says, "These are ancient legends". 15 We shall brand him upon the muzzle! 16 We have indeed tested them the way We had tested the owners of the garden when they swore that they would reap its harvest the next morning. 17 Without saying: Insha' Allah (If Allah will). 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 so that by the morrow it became barren and bleak. 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 So they went off, saying one unto another in low tones: 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 They left early in the morning bent on this purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "We must have lost our way. 26 Nay, but we are desolate! 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 They said, “Purity is to our Lord – we have indeed been unjust.” 29 And they came blaming one another. 30 [In the end] they said: "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we did behave outrageously! 31 We hope that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this. Truly, we turn to our Lord (wishing for good that He may forgive our sins, and reward us in the Hereafter)." 32 Such is the chastisement, and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is greater, did they but know! 33