The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 And thou wilt see and they will see 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 6 Verily thy Lord! He is the best Knower of him who strayeth from His path, and He is the best Knower of the guided one. 7 Therefore, do not obey those who belie, 8 They wish that you should compromise (in religion out of courtesy) with them, so they (too) would compromise with you. 9 And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 Crude, and above all, mean and infamous, 13 Because he possesses wealth and sons. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, "Legends of the former peoples." 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 16 Verily, We have tried them as We tried the people of the garden, when they swore to pluck the fruits of the (garden) in the morning, 17 And they did not say, “If Allah wills”. 18 Then, a visitation from your Lord came down upon it while they slept, 19 So the (garden) became, by the morning, like a dark and desolate spot, (whose fruit had been gathered). 20 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 Saying: Run unto your field if ye would pluck (the fruit). 22 So they went off, saying one unto another in low tones: 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 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.” 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. 31 Belike our Lord may exchange for us better garden than this; verily we are unto our Lord beseechers. 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