The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 And indeed for you is an unlimited reward. 3 For you are verily born of sublime nature. 4 And thou wilt see and they will see 5 Who is distracted. 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 give in to the deniers of truth. 8 They wish that in some way you may yield, so they too might soften their stand. 9 And do not yield to any contemptible swearer, 10 Detracter, spreader abroad of slanders, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the 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 will brand him upon the snout. 16 Verily We! We have proved them even as We proved the fellows of a garden when they sware that they would surely reap it in the morning. 17 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord came upon it while they slept 19 And in the morning it was as if plucked. 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 Saying: go out betimes to your tilth if ye would reap. 22 Thus they launched forth, whispering unto one another, 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 And in the morning they went, having the power to prevent. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 No, rather, we have been prevented' 27 The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?” 28 They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.” 29 Then they turned, one against another, in blaming. 30 They said, “Woe to us – we were indeed rebellious.” 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