The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen, and what they inscribe, 1 You are not insane, by the munificence of your Lord. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 So you will 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 So obey thou not those who cry lies. 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 Do not heed a contemptible swearer, 10 back-biting, gossiping, 11 Hinderer of the good, transgressor, malefactor 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 13 Because he possesses wealth and sons. 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 We will brand him on the nose. 16 We have put them [i.e., the Makkans] to test even as We put to test the owners of the orchard when they vowed that they would gather the fruit of their orchard in the morning, 17 Without saying: Insha' Allah (If Allah will). 18 A calamity from your Lord befell the orchard as they slept. 19 So by the morning it seemed as though picked clean. 20 Now when they rose at early morn, they called unto one another, 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 No needy man shall enter it to-day against you. 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 But when they saw it they said: 'We have surely gone astray. 26 Rather, we have been deprived." 27 The best among them said: Said I not unto you: Why glorify ye not (Allah)? 28 They said, "Glory be to God, our Lord. We have surely done wrong." 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 31 "It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this: for we do turn to Him (in repentance)!" 32 Such was the punishment. And verily the punishment of the Hereafter is greater if they did but know. 33