The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write. 1 you are not, because of the favor of your Lord, mad. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 Soon wilt thou see, and they will see, 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Verily your Lord knows those who have gone astray from His path, and He knows those who are guided on the way. 7 Therefore do not listen to the deniers. 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 or to any defamer or one who spreads slander, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 Foul mouthed, and in addition to all this, of improper lineage. 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 We will soon singe his pig-nose. 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 But did not add: "If God may please." 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 At daybreak they called to each other: 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 So they went off, while whispering to one another. 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 And they went out betimes determined in purpose. 25 When they saw the garden, they said, "Surely we have lost our way. 26 Aye! it is we who are deprived! 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 They said, "Glory be to God, our Lord. We have surely done wrong." 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said 'Woe to us, truly we were insolent' 31 Maybe, our Lord will give us instead one better than it; surely to our Lord do we make our humble petition. 32 Such is the punishment [of this world]. And the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they only knew. 33