The Pen (Al-Qalam)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. CONSIDER the pen, and all that they write [therewith]! 1 you are not, because of the favor of your Lord, mad. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 So thou shalt see, and they will see, 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 they wish you would compromise, then, they would compromise. 9 And do not obey every mean swearer, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 Foul mouthed, and in addition to all this, of improper lineage. 13 Because he is owner of riches and children. 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 Anon We shall brand him on snout. 16 [As for such sinners,] behold, We [but] try them as We tried the owners of a certain garden who vowed that they would surely harvest its fruit on the morrow, 17 Without making exception. 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 So by the morning it seemed as though picked clean. 20 They then called out to each other at daybreak. 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 Thus they launched forth, whispering unto one another, 23 "Let no needy person come to you within it today." 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 nay, rather we have been robbed!' 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 They answered: "Limitless in His glory is our Sustainer! Verily, we were doing wrong!" 29 And they came blaming one another. 30 They said, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. 31 “Hopefully, our Lord will give us a better replacement than this – we now incline towards our Lord.” 32 Such is the punishment; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is the greatest, if only they knew! 33