The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 And indeed for you is an unlimited reward. 3 Surely, you (Prophet Muhammad) are of a great morality. 4 Soon wilt thou see, and they will see, 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer 10 the backbiter who goes about slandering, 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 13 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 We will brand him upon the snout. 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 Without making exception. 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 So by the morning it seemed as though picked clean. 20 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 So they went, while they consulted together secretly, 23 "Let not a single indigent person break in upon you into the (garden) this day." 24 They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit). 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 No, rather, we have been prevented' 27 (Whereupon) the best among them said: 'Did I not say to you to exalt (Allah)' 28 They said: Glorified be our Lord! Lo! we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they started blaming one another, 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 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