The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 you are not, because of the favor of your Lord, mad. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 You have attained a high moral standard. 4 So you will soon see, and they too will see, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 They wish that you would soften [in your position], so they would soften [toward you]. 9 And do not obey every mean swearer, 10 back-biting, gossiping, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 Crude, and above all, mean and infamous, 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 When Our signs are recited to him, he says, 'Fairy-tales of the ancients!' 15 Anon We shall brand him on snout. 16 Surely We will try them as We tried the owners of the garden, when they swore that they would certainly cut off the produce in the morning, 17 Without saying: Insha' Allah (If Allah will). 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 And it became as though reaped. 20 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So they went, while they consulted together secretly, 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 as soon as they beheld [the garden and could not recognize] it, they exclaimed, "Surely we have lost our way!" 26 (Then they said): "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" 27 Said the most moderate of them, 'Did I not say to you, "Why do you not give glory?"' 28 They said: Glorified be our Lord! Lo! we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 31 Maybe our Lord will give us better than this. We turn to our Lord in supplication." 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33