The Pen (Al-Qalam)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 Anon thou wilt see and they will see. 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 They wish that you would soften [in your position], so they would soften [toward you]. 9 And do not yield to any contemptible swearer, 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 Because he possesses wealth and (numerous) sons. 14 when Our revelations are recited to him, he says, "These are just ancient fables." 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 16 We have tried you as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed to gather the fruits in the morning 17 And they made not the exception. 18 Then, a visitation from your Lord came down upon it while they slept, 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 They then called out to each other at daybreak. 21 'Come forth betimes upon your tillage, if you would pluck!' 22 So off they went, whispering to one another: 23 'No needy person shall set foot in 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. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 Said the most moderate of them, 'Did I not say to you, "Why do you not give glory?"' 28 They said, "Glory be to God, our Lord. We have surely done wrong." 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 They said: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 31 Belike our Lord may exchange for us better garden than this; verily we are unto our Lord beseechers. 32 Such is the punishment; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is the greatest, if only they knew! 33