The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 You are not demented by the grace of your Lord. 2 And indeed, for you is a reward uninterrupted. 3 And verily thou art of a high and noble disposition. 4 Soon wilt thou see, and they will see, 5 which of you is a prey to madness. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 So hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 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 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 ill-mannered, and moraly corrupt 13 because he has wealth and sons. 14 When to him are rehearsed Our Signs, "Tales of the ancients", he cries! 15 Soon shall We brand him on his 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 without saying, "If it be God's will." 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 So the (garden) became black by the morning, like a pitch dark night (in complete ruins). 20 Then they called out one to another as soon as the morning broke, 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 They were resolved to repel the beggars. 25 When they saw (and did not recognise it) they said: "Surely we have lost the way. 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 Said the most moderate of them, 'Did I not say to you, "Why do you not give glory?"' 28 They said: Glory be to our Lord, surely we were unjust. 29 Then they turned, one against another, in blaming. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 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 torment. And the torment of the Hereafter is far greater; if they but knew. 33