The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ 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 indeed, for you is a reward uninterrupted. 3 And verily thou art of a high and noble disposition. 4 So you will soon see, and they too will see, 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 6 Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has gone astray from His way, and He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 Who would have had thee compromise, that they may compromise. 9 Heed not the type of despicable men,- ready with oaths, 10 or to any defamer or one who spreads slander, 11 Who hinders men from (doing) good, the transgressor, the iniquitous, 12 Crude, and above all, mean and infamous, 13 Because he possesses wealth and (numerous) sons. 14 When to him are rehearsed Our Signs, "Tales of the ancients", he cries! 15 We shall brand him over the nose! 16 We have indeed tested them the way We had tested the owners of the garden when they swore that they would reap its harvest the next morning. 17 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 whereupon a visitation for thy Sustainer came upon that [garden] while they were asleep, 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 And they cried out one unto another in the morning, 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "We must have lost our way. 26 [and then,] "Nay, but we have been rendered destitute!" 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 our Lord, surely we were unjust. 29 Then they started blaming one another, 30 They said: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 31 [But] it may be that our Sustainer will grant us something better instead: for, verily, unto our Sustainer do we turn with hope!" 32 SUCH is the suffering [with which We try some people in this world]; but greater by far will be the suffering [which sinners shall have to bear] in the life to come - if they but knew it! 33