The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 And most surely you conform (yourself) to sublime morality. 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Surely thy Lord knows very well those who have gone astray from His way, and He knows very well those who are guided. 7 Therefore, do not obey those who belie, 8 They would like you to relent to them so that they could also relent towards you. 9 Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger, 10 backbiter, going about with slander, 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 13 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 14 When you recite Our revelations to him, he says: "These are fables of long ago." 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 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 made no exception (for the Will of Allah); 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. 20 And they called one another at morning, 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 Thus they launched forth, whispering unto one another, 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 They left early in the morning bent on this purpose. 25 When they saw the garden, they said, "Surely we have lost our way. 26 rather, we are utterly ruined.” 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 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 unto us! verily we! we have been arrogant. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than this in place thereof. Lo! we beseech our Lord. 32 Such was their punishment. But the punishment of the Everlasting Life is much greater, if they but knew. 33