The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 thou art not, by the blessing of thy Lord, a man possessed. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 And indeed, you are of a great moral character. 4 Anon thou wilt see and they will see. 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who walk aright. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 They only want that you should relent, so that they may come to terms. 9 And do not obey every mean swearer, 10 back-biting, gossiping, 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble; 13 because he has wealth and sons. 14 When you recite Our revelations to him, he says: "These are fables of long ago." 15 We will soon singe his pig-nose. 16 We have tried them as we tried the owners of a certain orchard, who vowed to harvest all its fruits the next morning, 17 without adding to their swearing, (Allah willing, InshaAllah). 18 A calamity from your Lord befell the orchard as they slept. 19 And in the morning it was as if plucked. 20 They then called out to each other at daybreak. 21 Saying: Run unto your field if ye would pluck (the fruit). 22 So they went off, while whispering to one another. 23 "Let no beggar come to the garden". 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Lo! we are in error! 26 [and then,] "Nay, but we have been rendered destitute!" 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 They said: Glorified be our Lord! Lo! we have been wrong-doers. 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 They said, 'Woe, alas for us! Truly, we were insolent. 31 [But] it may be that our Sustainer will grant us something better instead: for, verily, unto our Sustainer do we turn with hope!" 32 SUCH is the suffering [with which We try some people in this world]; but greater by far will be the suffering [which sinners shall have to bear] in the life to come - if they but knew it! 33