The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write. 1 By your Lord's Grace, you are not afflicted with madness, 2 And verily thine shall be a hire unending. 3 Surely, you (Prophet Muhammad) are of a great morality. 4 You shall see and they will see 5 which of you was bereft of reason. 6 Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has gone astray from His way, and He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 They wish that you would soften [in your position], so they would soften [toward you]. 9 And do not yield to any contemptible swearer, 10 the backbiter who goes about slandering, 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 Foul mouthed, and in addition to all this, of improper lineage. 13 Is it because he is possessed of worldly goods and children 14 when Our revelations are recited to him, he says, "These are just ancient fables." 15 We shall brand him on the nose. 16 We have tried them as we tried the owners of a certain orchard, who vowed to harvest all its fruits the next morning, 17 and they added not the saving words. 18 Then there encompassed it a visitation from your Lord while they were sleeping. 19 So by the morning it seemed as though picked clean. 20 At daybreak they called to each other: 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 So they went off speaking to each other in a low voice. 23 Saying: No poor man shall enter it today upon you. 24 And they opened the morning, strong in an (unjust) resolve. 25 But when they saw it, they said: Lo! we are in error! 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 (Whereupon) the best among them said: 'Did I not say to you to exalt (Allah)' 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they turned to each other reproaching. 30 They said: "Woe to us! Verily, we were Taghun (transgressors and disobedient, etc.) 31 Perhaps our Lord will replace it with a better garden. We turn in repentance to our Lord". 32 Such was the punishment. And verily the punishment of the Hereafter is greater if they did but know. 33