The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and by that which they inscribe. 1 By the grace of your Lord you are not mad. 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature. 4 So you shall see, and they (too) shall see, 5 which of you has been afflicted by insanity. 6 Your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His path and who is rightly guided. 7 So hearken not to those who deny (the Truth). 8 They only want that you should relent, so that they may come to terms. 9 And do not obey every mean swearer, 10 the backbiter who goes about slandering, 11 Who hinders men from (doing) good, the transgressor, the iniquitous, 12 the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble; 13 Because he is a possessor of wealth and children, 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says: 'They are but fairytales of the ancients' 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 And they did not say, “If Allah wills”. 18 Then there passed by on the (garden) something (fire) from your Lord at night and burnt it while they were asleep. 19 And in the morning it was as if plucked. 20 As the morning broke, they called out, one to another,- 21 'Come forth betimes upon your tillage, if you would pluck!' 22 And so they departed, whispering to one another: 23 No Miskin (poor man) shall enter upon you into it today. 24 And they went out early, determined in their resolve. 25 When they saw (and did not recognise it) they said: "Surely we have lost the way. 26 (No, we are not lost.) In fact, we have been deprived of everything". 27 One who was temperate among them, said: "Did I not say: 'Why don't you priase God?'" 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. 31 Maybe, our Lord will give us instead one better than it; surely to our Lord do we make our humble petition. 32 Such is the torment. And the torment of the Hereafter is far greater; if they but knew. 33