The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 And thou wilt 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 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 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 backbiter, going about with slander, 11 One who excessively forbids the good, transgressor, sinner. 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 13 Because he possesses wealth and sons. 14 when Our revelations are recited to him, he says, "These are just ancient fables." 15 Anon We shall brand him on snout. 16 Surely We will try them as We tried the owners of the garden, when they swore that they would certainly cut off the produce in the morning, 17 But made no reservation, ("If it be Allah's Will"). 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord came upon it while they slept 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 saying, "Be quick to reach your orchard, if you want to gather all your fruits." 22 Thus they launched forth, whispering unto one another, 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 And they went forth early, determined upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 27 Said the most right-minded among them: "Did I not tell you, 'Will you not extol God's limitless glory?'" 28 'Exaltations to Allah, our Lord' they said, 'We were truly harmdoers' 29 Some of them started to blame others. 30 They said: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 31 Perhaps our Lord will replace it with a better garden. We turn in repentance to our Lord". 32 Such is the punishment [of this world]. And the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they only knew. 33