The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; 3 and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. 4 And thou wilt see and they will see 5 which of you is the demented. 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 Therefore do not listen to the deniers. 8 They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate. 9 And obey not everyone who swears much, and is considered worthless, 10 back-biting, gossiping, 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, "Legends of the former peoples." 15 Soon shall We brand him on his snout. 16 We have tested them in the same way as we tested the dwellers of the garden (in Yemen) when they swore to pluck all the fruits of the garden in the morning, 17 and made no allowance [for the will of God]: 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested. 20 At daybreak they called to each other: 21 That, “Go to your fields at early morn, if you want to harvest.” 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 No needy man shall enter it to-day against you. 24 They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 (Then they said): "Nay! Indeed we are deprived of (the fruits)!" 27 The best of them said: Did I not say to you, Why do you not glorify (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 They said: “Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed. 31 May be our Lord will give us a better orchard in its stead; we turn to Him." 32 Such is the torment. And the torment of the Hereafter is far greater; if they but knew. 33