The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 Thou art not, for thy Lord's favour unto thee, a madman. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 You have attained a high moral standard. 4 You will see and they will also see 5 which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Surely thy Lord knows very well those who have gone astray from His way, and He knows very well those who are guided. 7 So do not yield to the rejecters. 8 they wish you would compromise, then, they would compromise. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 Is it because he is possessed of worldly goods and children 14 When Our Verses (of the Quran) are recited to him, he says: "Tales of the men of old!" 15 We shall brand him on the muzzle. 16 [As for such sinners,] behold, We [but] try them as We tried the owners of a certain garden who vowed that they would surely harvest its fruit on the morrow, 17 without saying, "If it be God's will." 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 Now when they rose at early morn, they called unto one another, 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 left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "We must have lost our way. 26 No, rather, we have been prevented' 27 One who was temperate among them, said: "Did I not say: 'Why don't you priase God?'" 28 They said, 'Glory be to God, our Lord; truly, we were evildoers.' 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 They said, 'Woe, alas for us! Truly, we were insolent. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than it in exchange. To our Lord we humbly turn' 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33