The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, 1 Thou art not, by thy Sustainer's grace, a madman! 2 There is surely reward unending for you, 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 You shall see and they will see 5 which of you is the demented. 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 like you to relent to them so that they could also relent towards you. 9 Do not yield to one persistent in swearing, 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 Hinderer of the good, transgressor, sinful, 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 When to him are rehearsed Our Signs, "Tales of the ancients", he cries! 15 We shall brand him over the nose! 16 We have tried them as We tried the owners of the garden who had sworn that in the morning they would reap it, 17 And they did not say, “If Allah wills”. 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 So it became as black, barren land. 20 They then called out to each other at daybreak. 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they departed, whispering together, 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 When they saw the garden, they said, "Surely we have lost our way. 26 Indeed, we are utterly ruined!" 27 A reasonable one among them said, "Did I not tell you that you should glorify God?" 28 They said, "Glory be to God, our Lord. We have surely done wrong." 29 Then they began to reproach one another. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 31 Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us [one] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." 32 Such is the punishment (in this life), but truly, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew. 33