The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen and the (Record) which (men) write,- 1 thou art not, by the blessing of thy Lord, a man possessed. 2 And most surely you shall have a reward never to be cut off. 3 For you are truly of a sublime character. 4 So you will see, and they will realise, 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 6 Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who walk aright. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 Nor ever listen to any excessive oath maker, ignoble person. 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 just because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, "Legends of the former peoples." 15 We will brand him on the nose. 16 We have tried them as we tried the owners of a certain orchard, who vowed to harvest all its fruits the next morning, 17 But made no reservation, ("If it be Allah's Will"). 18 Then a calamity from your Lord fell upon it, but they remained fast asleep. 19 So the (garden) became, by the morning, like a dark and desolate spot, (whose fruit had been gathered). 20 At daybreak they called to each other: 21 “Hurry to your orchard if you would gather its fruit.” 22 So they went off, while whispering to one another. 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 They went betimes, strong in (this) purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They said, “Purity is to our Lord – we have indeed been unjust.” 29 Then they turned, one against another, in blaming. 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 (garden) than this: for we do turn to Him (in repentance)!" 32 Such was the punishment. And verily the punishment of the Hereafter is greater if they did but know. 33