The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen and the (Record) which (men) write,- 1 Thou art not, for thy Lord's favour unto thee, a madman. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 You will see and they will also see 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 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 Wherefore obey not thou the beliers. 8 Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant. 9 Do not yield to any contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 13 Because he possesses wealth and sons. 14 That, when Our revelations are recited unto him, he saith: Mere fables of the men of old. 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 16 We have tried them as we tried the owners of a certain orchard, who vowed to harvest all its fruits the next morning, 17 and made no allowance [for the will of God]: 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 Then in the morning it became as though it had been reaped. 20 Then they cried out unto each other in the morning. 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 27 The best of them said: Did I not say to you, Why do you not glorify (Allah)? 28 They said: Glorified be our Lord! Lo! we have been wrong-doers. 29 Some of them started to blame others. 30 They said: “Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed. 31 Maybe, our Lord will give us instead one better than it; surely to our Lord do we make our humble petition. 32 Such was the punishment. And verily the punishment of the Hereafter is greater if they did but know. 33