The Pen (Al-Qalam)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 you are not, because of the favor of your Lord, mad. 2 There is surely reward unending for you, 3 surely thou art upon a mighty morality. 4 Soon wilt thou 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 you to relent to them so that they could also relent towards you. 9 Do not heed a contemptible swearer, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 Who hinders men from (doing) good, the transgressor, the iniquitous, 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 Because he possesses wealth and (numerous) sons. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 Soon We will brand him on 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 and they added not the saving words. 18 A visitor from your Lord circled around the garden during the night while they were asleep 19 and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. 20 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 That, “Go to your fields at early morn, if you want to harvest.” 22 So they departed, talking in low voices: 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 They set out early in the morning, thinking they had the power to prevent. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 rather, we are utterly ruined.” 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 They said, "Glory be to God, our Lord. We have surely done wrong." 29 Then some of them advanced against others, blaming each other. 30 They said, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than this in place thereof. Lo! we beseech our Lord. 32 Such is the punishment; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is the greatest, if only they knew! 33