The Pen (Al-Qalam)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 You are not, [O Muhammad], by the favor of your Lord, a madman. 2 Indeed, there is an unfailing wage for you. 3 And verily, you (O Muhammad SAW) are on an exalted standard of character. 4 So you will soon see, and they too will see, 5 Which of you is the demented. 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 Then do not obey the deniers. 8 They wish that in some way you may yield, so they too might soften their stand. 9 And obey not thou any swearer ignominous. 10 or to any defamer or one who spreads slander, 11 hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, 12 who is ignoble and besides all that, base-born; 13 Is it because he is possessed of worldly goods and children 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 tried them as We tried the owners of the garden who had sworn that in the morning they would reap it, 17 Without saying: Insha' Allah (If Allah will). 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested. 20 And they called one another at morning, 21 Saying: Go early to your tilth if you would cut (the produce). 22 So they went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 No needy man shall enter it to-day against you. 24 And they went in the morning with strong intention, thinking that they have power (to prevent the poor taking anything of the fruits therefrom). 25 But when they saw it, they said, "We must have lost our way. 26 "Indeed we are shut out (of the fruits of our labour)!" 27 The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?” 28 "Glory to our Lord," they said; we were really in the wrong." 29 Then they started blaming one another, 30 Said they: O woe to us! surely we were inordinate: 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than it in exchange. To our Lord we humbly turn' 32 Such is the punishment; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is the greatest, if only they knew! 33