The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. CONSIDER the pen, and all that they write [therewith]! 1 You (O Muhammad SAW) are not, by the Grace of your Lord, a madman. 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 for, behold, thou keepest indeed to a sublime way of life; 4 So you will see and they will see 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 6 Verily your Lord knows those who have gone astray from His path, and He knows those who are guided on the way. 7 Hence, defer not to [the likes and dislikes of] those who give the lie to the truth: 8 they would like thee to be soft [with them,] so that they might be soft [with thee]. 9 Do not heed a contemptible swearer, 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 Cruel, after all that base-born (of illegitimate birth), 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 When Our communications are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore. 15 [For this] We shall brand him with indelible disgrace! 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 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 it became as though reaped. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 Saying: "Go to your tilth in the morning, if you would pluck the fruits." 22 So off they went, whispering to one another: 23 "Let no beggar come to the garden". 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 Nay! we are made to suffer privation. 27 One who was temperate among them, said: "Did I not say: 'Why don't you priase God?'" 28 They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.” 29 Then some of them advanced against others, blaming each other. 30 They said, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. 31 Perhaps our Lord will replace it with a better garden. We turn in repentance to our Lord". 32 Such is the torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33