The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ NUN. I CALL to witness the pen and what they inscribe, 1 Thou art not, by thy Sustainer's grace, a madman! 2 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing. 3 And indeed you possess an exemplary character. 4 You will see and they will also see 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Verily it is thy Lord that knoweth best, which (among men) hath strayed from His Path: and He knoweth best those who receive (true) Guidance. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. 9 Do not yield to any contemptible swearer of oaths, 10 Defamer, going about with slander 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 Cruel, moreover, and an illegitimate pretender. 13 (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, 14 When Our verses are recited to him, he says, “These are stories of earlier people.” 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 adding ("if God wills"). 18 Then, a visitation from your Lord came down upon it while they slept, 19 And in the morning it was as if plucked. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 "Go early to your farms, if you want to pluck the fruits". 22 So they went off, saying one unto another in low tones: 23 "Be sure to stop any poor person from entering the orchard today." 24 And they went forth early, determined upon their purpose. 25 Then when they beheld it, they said: verily we have strayed. 26 No. In fact we have been deprived of it." 27 Said one of them, more just (than the rest): "Did I not say to you, 'Why not glorify (Allah)?'" 28 They said, "All glory belongs to God. We have certainly been unjust". 29 Then they began to heap reproaches on each other. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 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 chastisement, and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is greater, did they but know! 33