The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by what you write, 1 Thou art not, by thy Sustainer's grace, a madman! 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 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 is the demented. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are 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 Do not yield to one persistent in swearing, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 Gross, and therewithal ignoble. 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 on his nose. 16 Verily We! We have proved them even as We proved the fellows of a garden when they sware that they would surely reap it in the morning. 17 and they added not the saving words. 18 So an envoy from your Lord completed his round upon the garden, whilst they were sleeping. 19 and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 "Go ye to your tilth (betimes) in the morning, if ye would gather the fruits." 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 They went betimes, strong in (this) purpose. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 Indeed, we are utterly ruined!" 27 Said one of them, more just (than the rest): "Did I not say to you, 'Why not glorify (Allah)?'" 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 31 “Hopefully, our Lord will give us a better replacement than this – we now incline towards our Lord.” 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33