The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen, and all that they write! 1 By your Lord's Grace, you are not afflicted with madness, 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 for, behold, thou keepest indeed to a sublime way of life; 4 Anon thou wilt see and they will see. 5 Which of you is the afflicted [by a devil]. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are guided. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 They want you to make concessions to them and then they will reciprocate. 9 And obey thou not every mean swearer, 10 Defamer, going about with slander 11 Who hinders men from (doing) good, the transgressor, the iniquitous, 12 Cruel, after all that base-born (of illegitimate birth), 13 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children 14 that, whenever Our messages are conveyed to him, such a one says, "Fables of ancient times"? 15 We shall brand him on the 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 adding to their swearing, (Allah willing, InshaAllah). 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 and in the morning it was if the garden had been reaped. 20 Now when they rose at early morn, they called unto one another, 21 That, “Go to your fields at early morn, if you want to harvest.” 22 They all left, whispering to one another, 23 "Be sure to stop any poor person from entering the orchard today." 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 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 Then they approached one another, blaming each other. 30 They said: "Alas for us! We have indeed transgressed! 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