The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, 3 And most surely you conform (yourself) to sublime morality. 4 Soon wilt thou see, and they will see, 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Surely your Lord best knows him who errs from His way, and He best knows the followers of the right course. 7 Wherefore obey not thou the beliers. 8 Who would have had thee compromise, that they may compromise. 9 Do not heed a contemptible swearer, 10 the fault-finder who goes around slandering, 11 A preventer of good, transgressing and sinful, 12 the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble; 13 because he has wealth and sons. 14 That, when Our revelations are recited unto him, he saith: Mere fables of the men of old. 15 We will brand him upon the snout. 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 without adding ("if God wills"). 18 A calamity from your Lord befell the orchard as they slept. 19 and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. 20 At daybreak they called out to one another: 21 [Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit." 22 So they departed, conversing in secret low tones (saying), 23 [Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 Nay! we are made to suffer privation. 27 The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?” 28 They answered: "Limitless in His glory is our Sustainer! Verily, we were doing wrong!" 29 Then they approached one another, blaming each other. 30 They said, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. 31 We hope that our Lord will give us in exchange a better (garden) than this. Truly, we turn to our Lord (wishing for good that He may forgive our sins, and reward us in the Hereafter)." 32 Such is the torment. And the torment of the Hereafter is far greater; if they but knew. 33