The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
۞ Noon. By the Pen and that (the angels) write, 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 And most surely you conform (yourself) to sublime morality. 4 So you will see, and they will realise, 5 which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Indeed your Lord well knows those who have strayed from His path, and He well knows those who are upon guidance. 7 So do not comply with those who deny: 8 they would like thee to be soft [with them,] so that they might be soft [with thee]. 9 And obey not thou any swearer ignominous. 10 the backbiter who goes about slandering, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 Because he possesses wealth and sons. 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 indeed tested them the way We had tested the owners of the garden when they swore that they would reap its harvest the next morning. 17 and made no allowance [for the will of God]: 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 Then in the morning it became as though it had been reaped. 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 Saying: Run unto your field if ye would pluck (the fruit). 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 No needy man shall enter it to-day against you. 24 They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit). 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 Rather, we have been deprived." 27 The more upright of the two said, "Did I not bid you to glorify God?" 28 They said: Glory be to our Lord, surely we were unjust. 29 and then they turned upon one another with mutual reproaches. 30 Said they: O woe to us! surely we were inordinate: 31 It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better than it; to our Lord we humbly turn.' 32 Such is the punishment (in this life), but truly, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew. 33