The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 (Muhammad), you are not insane, thanks to the bounty of your Lord. 2 And indeed for you is an unlimited reward. 3 And most surely you conform (yourself) to sublime morality. 4 You shall see and they will see 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Surely your Lord knows well those who have strayed from His Way just as He knows well those who are on the Right Way. 7 Therefore, do not obey those who belie, 8 they would like thee to be soft [with them,] so that they might be soft [with thee]. 9 Do not heed a contemptible swearer, 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 moreover ignoble, 13 Simply because he possesses wealth and children. 14 and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.” 15 We will soon singe his pig-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 making exception. 18 Then there passed by on the (garden) something (fire) from your Lord at night and burnt it while they were asleep. 19 So in the morning it became as if harvested. 20 Then they cried out unto each other in the morning. 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "Verily, we have gone astray," 26 rather, 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 They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.” 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 They said, “Woe to us – we were indeed rebellious.” 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 is the punishment (in this life), but truly, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew. 33