68
68. Al-Qalam - The Pen
| 1 | Nun. By the Pen, and what they inscribe, |
| 2 | thou art not, by the blessing of thy Lord, a man possessed. |
| 3 | Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; |
| 4 | surely thou art upon a mighty morality. |
| 5 | So thou shalt see, and they will see, |
| 6 | which of you is the demented. |
| 7 | Surely thy Lord knows very well those who have gone astray from His way, and He knows very well those who are guided. |
| 8 | So obey thou not those who cry lies. |
| 9 | They wish that thou shouldst compromise, then they would compromise. |
| 10 | And obey thou not every mean swearer, |
| 11 | backbiter, going about with slander, |
| 12 | hinderer of good, guilty aggressor, coarse-grained, |
| 13 | moreover ignoble, |
| 14 | because he has wealth and sons. |
| 15 | When Our signs are recited to him, he says, 'Fairy-tales of the ancients!' |
| 16 | We shall brand him upon the muzzle! |
| 17 | Now We have tried them, even as We tried the owners of the garden when they swore they would pluck in the morning |
| 18 | and they added not the saving words. |
| 19 | Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it, while they were sleeping, |
| 20 | and in the morning it was as if it were a garden plucked. |
| 21 | In the morning they called to one another, |
| 22 | 'Come forth betimes upon your tillage, if you would pluck!' |
| 23 | So they departed, whispering together, |
| 24 | 'No needy man shall enter it today against your will.' |
| 25 | And they went forth early, determined upon their purpose. |
| 26 | But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; |
| 27 | nay, rather we have been robbed!' |
| 28 | Said the most moderate of them, 'Did I not say to you, "Why do you not give glory?"' |
| 29 | They said, 'Glory be to God, our Lord; truly, we were evildoers.' |
| 30 | And they advanced one upon another, blaming each other. |
| 31 | They said, 'Woe, alas for us! Truly, we were insolent. |
| 32 | It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better than it; to our Lord we humbly turn.' |
| 33 | Such is the chastisement; and the chastisement of the world to come, is assuredly greater, did they but know. |
| 34 | Surely for the godfearing shall be Gardens of Bliss with their Lord. |
| 35 | What, shall we make those who have surrendered like to the sinners? |
| 36 | What ails you then, how you judge? |
| 37 | Or have you a Book wherein you study? |
| 38 | Surely therein you shall have whatever you choose! |
| 39 | Or have you oaths from Us, reaching to the Day of Resurrection? Surely you shall have whatever you judge! |
| 40 | Ask them, which of them will guarantee that! |
| 41 | Or do they have associates? Then let them bring their associates, if they speak truly. |
| 42 | Upon the day when the leg shall be bared, and they shall be summoned to bow themselves, but they cannot; |
| 43 | humbled shall be their eyes, and abasement shall overspread them, for they had been summoned to bow themselves while they were whole. |
| 44 | So leave Me with him who cries lies to this discourse! We will draw them on little by little whence they know not; |
| 45 | and I shall respite them -- assuredly My guile is sure. |
| 46 | Or askest thou them for a wage, and so they are weighed down with debt? |
| 47 | Or is the Unseen in their keeping, and so they are writing it down? |
| 48 | So be thou patient under the judgment of thy Lord, and be not as the Man of the Fish, when he called, choking inwardly. |
| 49 | Had there not overtaken him a blessing from his Lord he would have been cast upon the wilderness, being condemned. |
| 50 | But his Lord had chosen him, and He placed him among the righteous. |
| 51 | The unbelievers wellnigh strike thee down with their glances, when they hear the Reminder, and they say, 'Surely he is a man possessed!' |
| 52 | And it is nothing but a Reminder unto all beings. |