The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write. 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 surely thou art upon a mighty morality. 4 You will see, and they will see, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Surely your Lord knows well those who have strayed from His Way just as He knows well those who are on the Right Way. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 backbiter, going about with slander, 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 that, whenever Our messages are conveyed to him, such a one says, "Fables of ancient times"? 15 Soon We will brand him on the nose. 16 We have tried you as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed to gather the fruits in the morning 17 But did not add: "If God may please." 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 So the (garden) became, by the morning, like a dark and desolate spot, (whose fruit had been gathered). 20 (Then) in the morning they called out to one another, saying: 21 "If you want to gather the fruits, let us go early to the plantation." 22 So off they went, whispering to one another: 23 "Let not a single indigent person break in upon you into the (garden) this day." 24 They were resolved to repel the beggars. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "We must have lost our way. 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 They said, "Glory be to God, our Lord. We have surely done wrong." 29 Then they approached one another, blaming each other. 30 They said: Alas for us! In truth we were outrageous. 31 Perhaps our Lord will replace it with a better garden. We turn in repentance to our Lord". 32 Such was their punishment. But the punishment of the Everlasting Life is much greater, if they but knew. 33