The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, 1 By your Lord's Grace, you are not afflicted with madness, 2 There is surely reward unending for you, 3 And verily thou art of a high and noble disposition. 4 So you will soon see, and they too will see, 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Surely your Lord knows well those who have strayed from His Way just as He knows well those who are on the Right Way. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 13 Because he is owner of riches and children. 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 We shall brand him over the nose! 16 Verily We! We have proved them even as We proved the fellows of a garden when they sware that they would surely reap it in the morning. 17 But made no reservation, ("If it be Allah's Will"). 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 and the garden was turned into a barren desert. 20 And they called out to each other in the morning, 21 "Go early to your farms, if you want to pluck the fruits". 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 "Indeed, no needy person shall enter it today [and come] upon you [unawares,]" 24 They were resolved to repel the beggars. 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 A reasonable one among them said, "Did I not tell you that you should glorify God?" 28 They answered: "Limitless in His glory is our Sustainer! Verily, we were doing 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 We hope that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this. Truly, we turn to our Lord (wishing for good that He may forgive our sins, and reward us in the Hereafter)." 32 Such is the torment. And the torment of the Hereafter is far greater; if they but knew. 33