The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Nun. By the pen and by that which they inscribe. 1 By your Lord's Grace, you are not afflicted with madness, 2 You will certainly receive a never-ending reward. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 5 which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 Then do not obey the deniers. 8 Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant. 9 And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer 10 the backbiter who goes about slandering, 11 [or] the withholder of good, [or] the sinful aggressor, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 14 when Our revelations are recited to him, he says, "These are just ancient fables." 15 We will soon singe his pig-nose. 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 saying, "If it be God's will." 18 So there came upon the garden an affliction from your Lord while they were asleep. 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 "Go ye to your tilth (betimes) in the morning, if ye would gather the fruits." 22 So they set out, while lowering their voices, 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 They went betimes, strong in (this) purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "We must have lost our way. 26 (No, we are not lost.) In fact, we have been deprived of everything". 27 The best among them said: Said I not unto you: Why glorify ye not (Allah)? 28 They said, 'Glory be to God, our Lord; truly, we were evildoers.' 29 Then some of them drew near unto others, self-reproaching. 30 They said: “Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed. 31 We hope that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this. Truly, we turn to our Lord (wishing for good that He may forgive our sins, and reward us in the Hereafter)." 32 Such is the chastisement; and the chastisement of the Hereafter is assuredly even greater, if only they knew. 33