The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 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 is the demented. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 they wish you would compromise, then, they would compromise. 9 And obey not everyone who swears much, and is considered worthless, 10 backbiter, going about with slander, 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 Gross, and therewithal ignoble. 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 that, whenever Our messages are conveyed to him, such a one says, "Fables of ancient times"? 15 We shall brand him upon the muzzle! 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 did not say, “If Allah wills”. 18 whereupon a visitation for thy Sustainer came upon that [garden] while they were asleep, 19 and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested. 20 They then called out to each other at daybreak. 21 That, “Go to your fields at early morn, if you want to harvest.” 22 They all left, whispering to one another, 23 "Be sure to stop any poor person from entering the orchard today." 24 They went betimes, strong in (this) purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 [and then,] "Nay, but we have been rendered destitute!" 27 Said one of them, more just (than the rest): "Did I not say to you, 'Why not glorify (Allah)?'" 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 And they came blaming one another. 30 They said, 'Woe, alas for us! Truly, we were insolent. 31 “Hopefully, our Lord will give us a better replacement than this – we now incline towards our Lord.” 32 Such is the torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33