The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by what you write, 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; 3 surely thou art upon a mighty morality. 4 So thou shalt see, and they will see, 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 Hence, defer not to [the likes and dislikes of] those who give the lie to the truth: 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 And do not obey every mean swearer, 10 Defamer, going about with slander 11 Hinderer of the good, trespasser; sinner. 12 the crude of low character 13 or that because he may possess wealth and children. 14 When you recite Our revelations to him, he says: "These are fables of long ago." 15 We shall brand him on the muzzle. 16 We have tried them as We tried the owners of the garden who had sworn that in the morning they would reap it, 17 And they did not say, “If Allah wills”. 18 Then there came on the (garden) a visitation from thy Lord, (which swept away) all around, while they were asleep. 19 and the garden was turned into a barren desert. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 That, “Go to your fields at early morn, if you want to harvest.” 22 So they went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 “No destitute person shall enter it today.” 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Most surely we have gone astray 26 rather, we are utterly ruined.” 27 The best among them said, “Did I not tell you, ‘Why do you not proclaim His purity?’” 28 They said, “Purity is to our Lord – we have indeed been unjust.” 29 Then some of them advanced against others, blaming each other. 30 [In the end] they said: "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we did behave outrageously! 31 May be our Lord will give us a better orchard in its stead; we turn to Him." 32 Such is the torment if only they knew that the torment in the life hereafter will certainly be greater. 33