The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 Thou art not, for thy Lord's favour unto thee, a madman. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 So you will soon see, and they too will see, 5 which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 They wish that you should compromise (in religion out of courtesy) with them, so they (too) would compromise with you. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 A defamer, spreader abroad of slander. 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 Ignoble, besides all that, base-born; 13 because he has wealth and sons. 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 We shall brand him upon the muzzle! 16 We have tried them as We tried the owners of the garden who had sworn that in the morning they would reap it, 17 And made no exception (for the Will of Allah); 18 Thereupon a calamity from your Lord passed over it while they were asleep, 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 At daybreak they called to each other: 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they departed, whispering together, 23 "Let not a single indigent person break in upon you into the (garden) this day." 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 Indeed, we are utterly ruined!" 27 Said the most right-minded among them: "Did I not tell you, 'Will you not extol God's limitless glory?'" 28 They said, 'Glory be to God, our Lord; truly, we were evildoers.' 29 Then they began to reproach one another. 30 [In the end] they said: "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we did behave outrageously! 31 Perhaps our Lord will replace it with a better garden. We turn in repentance to our Lord". 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33