The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Nuun* – by oath of the pen and by oath of what is written by it. (Alphabet of the Arabic language; Allah and to whomever He reveals, know their precise meanings.) 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 And verily, thine shall be a reward neverending 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 So very soon, you will see and they too will realise – 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 So do not yield to the rejecters. 8 They wish that in some way you may yield, so they too might soften their stand. 9 And do not obey every mean swearer, 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 those who hinder good, the guilty aggressor, 12 Crude, and above all, mean and infamous, 13 Because he is a possessor of wealth and children, 14 and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.” 15 Soon shall We brand (the beast) on the snout! 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 making any allowance (for the will of Allah). 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. 20 And they cried out one unto another in the morning, 21 'Come out to your tillage if you want to reap' 22 Thus they launched forth, whispering unto one another, 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 But as soon as they beheld the orchard, (they cried out): “We have certainly lost the way; 26 [and then,] "Nay, but we have been rendered destitute!" 27 Said the most right-minded among them: "Did I not tell you, 'Will you not extol God's limitless glory?'" 28 They said: "Glory to our Lord! Verily we have been doing wrong!" 29 Then they turned, one against another, in blaming. 30 They said 'Woe to us, truly we were insolent' 31 May be our Lord will give us a better orchard in its stead; we turn to Him." 32 Such was their punishment, [in this life]. But the punishment of the life to come is much more severe, if only they knew it! 33