The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by what you write, 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 And verily thou art of a high and noble disposition. 4 You will see and they will also 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 yield to those who reject the Truth. 8 They wish that you should compromise (in religion out of courtesy) with them, so they (too) would compromise with you. 9 And obey not thou any swearer ignominous. 10 Defamer, going about with slander 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 Simply because he possesses wealth and children. 14 When Our Verses (of the Quran) are recited to him, he says: "Tales of the men of old!" 15 Anon We shall brand him on snout. 16 Now We have tried them, even as We tried the owners of the garden when they swore they would pluck in the morning 17 and they added not the saving words. 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 So the (garden) became, by the morning, like a dark and desolate spot, (whose fruit had been gathered). 20 And they called out to each other in the morning, 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 Said the most right-minded among them: "Did I not tell you, 'Will you not extol God's limitless glory?'" 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, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. 31 Maybe, our Lord will give us instead one better than it; surely to our Lord do we make our humble petition. 32 Such is the torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33