The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Nun. By the Pen and the (Record) which (men) write,- 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 And indeed, for you is a reward uninterrupted. 3 for, behold, thou keepest indeed to a sublime way of life; 4 and [one day] thou shalt see, and they [who now deride thee] shall see, 5 Who is distracted. 6 Surely thy Lord knows very well those who have gone astray from His way, and He knows very well those who are guided. 7 Do not give in to the deniers of truth. 8 They wish that in some way you may yield, so they too might soften their stand. 9 Furthermore, defer not to the contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 A slanderer, going about with calumnies, 11 Hinderer of the good, trespasser; sinner. 12 Violent (and cruel),- with all that, base-born,- 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 when Our revelations are recited to him, he says, "These are just ancient fables." 15 We shall brand him on the muzzle. 16 We have tried you as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed to gather the fruits in the morning 17 without making any allowance (for the will of Allah). 18 Thereupon a calamity from your Lord passed over it while they were asleep, 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 Now when they rose at early morn, they called unto one another, 21 "If you want to gather the fruits, let us go early to the plantation." 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 'No needy person shall set foot in it today' 24 And they left at early morn, assuming they were in control of their purpose. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 Indeed, we are utterly ruined!" 27 The best among them said: Said I not unto you: Why glorify ye not (Allah)? 28 They said: Glory be to our Lord, surely we were unjust. 29 And they came blaming one another. 30 [In the end] they said: "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we did behave outrageously! 31 Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us [one] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." 32 Such is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in the Hereafter,- if only they knew! 33