The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen and the (Record) which (men) write,- 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 You shall see and they will see 5 Who is distracted. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 Wherefore obey not thou the beliers. 8 Who would have had thee compromise, that they may compromise. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 Detracter, spreader abroad of slanders, 11 Hinderer of the good, trespasser; sinner. 12 ill-mannered, and moraly corrupt 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 When Our revelations are recited to him, he says, "These are ancient legends". 15 We shall brand him on the muzzle. 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 Without making exception. 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. 20 Then they called out one to another as soon as the morning broke, 21 saying, "Be quick to reach your orchard, if you want to gather all your fruits." 22 So they went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. 25 But when they saw it they said: 'We have surely gone astray. 26 Aye! it is we who are deprived! 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 began to reproach one another. 30 They said, “Woe to us – we were indeed rebellious.” 31 Maybe our Lord will give us better than this. We turn to our Lord in supplication." 32 Such is the torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33