The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 thou art not, by the blessing of thy Lord, a man possessed. 2 There is surely reward unending for you, 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 So thou shalt see, and they will see, 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 So hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 Do not heed a contemptible swearer, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 13 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 We shall brand him upon the muzzle! 16 Verily We! We have proved them even as We proved the fellows of a garden when they sware that they would surely reap it in the morning. 17 without making any allowance (for the will of Allah). 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, 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 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 “No destitute person shall enter it today.” 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 No, rather, we have been prevented' 27 Said the most right-minded among them: "Did I not tell you, 'Will you not extol God's limitless glory?'" 28 They said, "Exalted is our Lord! Indeed, we were wrongdoers." 29 Then they turned, one against another, in reproach. 30 Said they: O woe to us! surely we were inordinate: 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 truly, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew. 33