The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write. 1 You are not insane, by the munificence of your Lord. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 And thou (standest) on an exalted standard of character. 4 Soon you will see, as will they, 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 They only want that you should relent, so that they may come to terms. 9 Do not heed a contemptible swearer, 10 or to any defamer or one who spreads slander, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 the crude of low character 13 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 14 That, when Our revelations are recited unto him, he saith: Mere fables of the men of old. 15 We will soon singe his pig-nose. 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 Without saying: Insha' Allah (If Allah will). 18 So an envoy from your Lord completed his round upon the garden, whilst they were sleeping. 19 And it became as though reaped. 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 They were resolved to repel the beggars. 25 But when they saw it they said: 'We have surely gone astray. 26 rather, we are utterly ruined.” 27 A reasonable one among them said, "Did I not tell you that you should glorify God?" 28 They said: Glorified be our Lord! Lo! we have been wrong-doers. 29 So they came towards each other, blaming. 30 Said they: O woe to us! surely we were inordinate: 31 [But] it may be that our Sustainer will grant us something better instead: for, verily, unto our Sustainer do we turn with hope!" 32 Such is the punishment (in this life), but truly, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew. 33