The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 you are not, because of the favor of your Lord, mad. 2 Nay, verily for thee is a Reward unfailing: 3 You have attained a high moral standard. 4 So you will soon see, and they too will see, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 Or backbiter, calumniator, slanderer, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 ill-mannered, and moraly corrupt 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 We shall brand him on his nose. 16 We have tested them in the same way as we tested the dwellers of the garden (in Yemen) when they swore to pluck all the fruits of the garden in the morning, 17 But made no reservation, ("If it be Allah's Will"). 18 Then there passed by on the (garden) something (fire) from your Lord at night and burnt it while they were asleep. 19 so that by the morrow it became barren and bleak. 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 'Come forth betimes upon your tillage, if you would pluck!' 22 Thus they launched forth, whispering unto one another, 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 And they went forth early, determined upon their purpose. 25 But as soon as they beheld the orchard, (they cried out): “We have certainly lost the way; 26 Nay, but we are desolate! 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 'Exaltations to Allah, our Lord' they said, 'We were truly harmdoers' 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 31 Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us [one] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." 32 Such was the punishment. And verily the punishment of the Hereafter is greater if they did but know. 33