The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen, and what they inscribe, 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 And verily, thine shall be a reward neverending 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 So you will see and they will see 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 And do not obey every mean swearer, 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 Greedy therewithal, intrusive. 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, “These are stories of earlier people.” 15 Anon We shall brand him on snout. 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 and they added not the saving words. 18 So an envoy from your Lord completed his round upon the garden, whilst they were sleeping. 19 and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. 20 At daybreak they called to each other: 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 So they went off, while whispering to one another. 23 "Let not a single indigent person break in upon you into the (garden) this day." 24 And they went out betimes determined in purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [Allah]?' " 28 'Exaltations to Allah, our Lord' they said, 'We were truly harmdoers' 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said: “Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than this in place thereof. Lo! we beseech our Lord. 32 Such was the punishment. And verily the punishment of the Hereafter is greater if they did but know. 33