The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, 1 Thou art not, through the grace of thy Lord, mad. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 Surely, you (Prophet Muhammad) are of a great morality. 4 So you shall see, and they (too) shall see, 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Verily, your Lord knows better, who (among men) has gone astray from His Path, and He knows better those who are guided. 7 Do not yield to those who reject the Truth. 8 Who would have had thee compromise, that they may compromise. 9 And obey not everyone who swears much, and is considered worthless, 10 backbiter, going about with slander, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 Gross, and therewithal ignoble. 13 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children 14 When you recite Our revelations to him, he says: "These are fables of long ago." 15 Anon We shall brand him on snout. 16 We have put them [i.e., the Makkans] to test even as We put to test the owners of the orchard when they vowed that they would gather the fruit of their orchard in the morning, 17 and they added not the saving words. 18 Then a visitation from thy Lord came upon it while they slept 19 Then in the morning it became as though it had been reaped. 20 (Then) in the morning they called out to one another, saying: 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 They all left, whispering to one another, 23 No needy man shall enter it to-day against you. 24 – and early they went, strongly bent upon their purpose. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 Said the most moderate of them, 'Did I not say to you, "Why do you not give glory?"' 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: Alas for us! In truth we were outrageous. 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 suffering [with which We try some people in this world]; but greater by far will be the suffering [which sinners shall have to bear] in the life to come - if they but knew it! 33