The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and that which they write (therewith), 1 By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. 2 And most surely you shall have a reward never to be cut off. 3 And most surely you conform (yourself) to sublime morality. 4 So you will soon see, and they too will see, 5 Who is distracted. 6 Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has gone astray from His way, and He is most knowing of the [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 And obey not thou any swearer ignominous. 10 [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - 11 or to one who places obstacles in the way of good being done or to the wicked transgressor, 12 Cruel, after all that base-born (of illegitimate birth), 13 Simply because he possesses wealth and children. 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 15 We will 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 ("if God wills"). 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 So by the morning it seemed as though picked clean. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 “Hurry to your orchard if you would gather its fruit.” 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones (saying), 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They said, "Glory be to God, our Lord. We have surely done wrong." 29 And they came blaming one another. 30 They said: woe unto us! verily we! we have been arrogant. 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