The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Nun. CONSIDER the pen, and all that they write [therewith]! 1 Thou art not, for thy Lord's favour unto thee, a madman. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 5 Which of you is the afflicted [by a devil]. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are guided. 7 So hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 8 They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 back-biting, gossiping, 11 obstructing virtues, a sinful transgressor, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 When Our signs are recited to him, he says, 'Fairy-tales of the ancients!' 15 We will soon singe his pig-nose. 16 Now We have tried them, even as We tried the owners of the garden when they swore they would pluck in the morning 17 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested. 20 And they cried out one unto another in the morning, 21 Saying: go out betimes to your tilth if ye would reap. 22 So they went off, saying one unto another in low tones: 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit). 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 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 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 [In the end] they said: "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we did behave outrageously! 31 It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better than it; to our Lord we humbly turn.' 32 SUCH is the suffering [with which We try some people in this world]; but greater by far will be the suffering [which sinners shall have to bear] in the life to come - if they but knew it! 33