The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 And indeed, you are of a great moral character. 4 You shall see and they will see 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 They wish that you should compromise (in religion out of courtesy) with them, so they (too) would compromise with you. 9 And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 Because he is a possessor of wealth and children, 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 Soon shall We brand him on his snout. 16 Indeed, We have tried them as We tried the companions of the garden, when they swore to cut its fruit in the [early] morning 17 And they did not say, “If Allah wills”. 18 Then, a visitation from your Lord came down upon it while they slept, 19 So it became as black, barren land. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 saying, "Be quick to reach your orchard, if you want to gather all your fruits." 22 So off they went, whispering to one another: 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 When they saw the garden, they said, "Surely we have lost our way. 26 rather, we are utterly ruined.” 27 The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?” 28 They said: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong!" 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said, “Woe to us – we were indeed rebellious.” 31 Belike our Lord may exchange for us better garden than this; verily we are unto our Lord beseechers. 32 Such is Our chastisement; and the punishment of the Hereafter will be greater, if only they knew! 33