The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by that which they inscribe. 1 thou art not, by the blessing of thy Lord, a man possessed. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 And verily thou art of a high and noble disposition. 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who walk aright. 7 Then do not obey the deniers. 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 yield to any contemptible swearer, 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 13 just because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 We shall brand him on his nose. 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 they made not the exception. 18 Then a calamity from your Lord fell upon it, but they remained fast asleep. 19 And it became as though reaped. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 So they set out, while lowering their voices, 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 (Then they said): "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" 27 The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?” 28 They said, "Exalted is our Lord! Indeed, we were wrongdoers." 29 Then they started blaming one another, 30 They said, 'Woe, alas for us! Truly, we were insolent. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than this in place thereof. Lo! we beseech our Lord. 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33