The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 You are not demented by the grace of your Lord. 2 And verily, thine shall be a reward neverending 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 And thou wilt see and they will see 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Your Lord knows best who has fallen by the wayside, and who has remained on the true path. 7 Therefor obey not thou the rejecters 8 Who would have had thee compromise, that they may compromise. 9 And yield not to any mean swearer 10 Detracter, spreader abroad of slanders, 11 Hinderer of the good, trespasser; sinner. 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 Because he* has some wealth and sons. (Walid bin Mugaira, who cursed the Holy Prophet.) 14 When Our revelations are rehearsed unto him, he saith: fables of the ancients. 15 We shall brand him on the nose. 16 Indeed, We have tried them as We tried the companions of the garden, when they swore to cut its fruit in the [early] morning 17 and made no allowance [for the will of God]: 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, 19 and the garden was turned into a barren desert. 20 At daybreak they called to each other: 21 Saying: go out betimes to your tilth if ye would reap. 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit). 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 Indeed, we are utterly ruined!" 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They said, "Exalted is our Lord! Indeed, we were wrongdoers." 29 So they came towards each other, blaming. 30 [In the end] they said: "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we did behave outrageously! 31 "It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this: for we do turn to Him (in repentance)!" 32 Such was their punishment, [in this life]. But the punishment of the life to come is much more severe, if only they knew it! 33