The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 Thou art not, by thy Sustainer's grace, a madman! 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 And thou wilt see and they will see 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 6 Verily thy Lord! He is the best Knower of him who strayeth from His path, and He is the best Knower of the guided one. 7 Wherefore obey not thou the beliers. 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 Cruel, moreover, and an illegitimate pretender. 13 just because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 We shall brand him on the muzzle. 16 We have tested them in the same way as we tested the dwellers of the garden (in Yemen) when they swore to pluck all the fruits of the garden in the morning, 17 without saying, "If it be God's will." 18 So an envoy from your Lord completed his round upon the garden, whilst they were sleeping. 19 and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested. 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 went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 "Let not a single indigent person break in upon you into the (garden) this day." 24 They went betimes, strong in (this) purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 Said one of them, more just (than the rest): "Did I not say to you, 'Why not glorify (Allah)?'" 28 They said: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong!" 29 And they advanced one upon another, blaming each other. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than it in exchange. To our Lord we humbly turn' 32 Such is the torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33