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, by the blessing of thy Lord, a man possessed. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 For you are truly of a sublime character. 4 You will see and they will also see 5 which of you is a prey to madness. 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 So do not yield to the rejecters. 8 They wish that thou shouldst compromise, then they would compromise. 9 And obey not thou any swearer ignominous. 10 Defamer, going about with slander 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble; 13 because he has wealth and sons. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, "Legends of the former peoples." 15 Soon We will brand him on the nose. 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 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 A visitor from your Lord circled around the garden during the night 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 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 They all left, whispering to one another, 23 "Indeed, no needy person shall enter it today [and come] upon you [unawares,]" 24 They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit). 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 (Then they said): "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" 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. We have surely done wrong." 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 They said: Alas for us! In truth we were outrageous. 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 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