The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 (Muhammad), you are not insane, thanks to the bounty of your Lord. 2 You will certainly receive a never-ending reward. 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 Soon you will see, as will they, 5 Which of you is the afflicted [by a devil]. 6 Verily, thy Sustainer alone is fully aware as to who has strayed from His path, Just as He alone is fully aware of those who have found the right way. 7 So obey thou not those who cry lies. 8 They would like you to relent to them so that they could also relent towards you. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 The excessively insulting one, spreader of spite. 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 ill-mannered, and moraly corrupt 13 because he has wealth and sons. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, “These are stories of earlier people.” 15 We shall mark him upon his nose! 16 Surely We will try them as We tried the owners of the garden, when they swore that they would certainly cut off the produce in the morning, 17 without adding ("if God wills"). 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 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 Saying: "Go to your tilth in the morning, if you would pluck the fruits." 22 So they went, while they consulted together secretly, 23 "Let not a single indigent person break in upon you into the (garden) this day." 24 They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit). 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 Nay, but we are desolate! 27 The most moderate of them said: said I not unto you, wherefore hallow him ye not! 28 They said, "All glory belongs to God. We have certainly been unjust". 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better than it; to our Lord we humbly turn.' 32 Such is the chastisement, and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is greater, did they but know! 33