English - Chapter 68 - Al-Qalam

Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write

By your Lord´s Grace, you are not afflicted with madness

and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward

and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence

So you will soon see, and they too will see

which of you is afflicted with madness

Surely your Lord knows well those who have strayed from His Way just as He knows well those who are on the Right Way

Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false

they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant

And do not yield to any contemptible swearer

the fault-finder who goes around slandering

the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful

the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble

(who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons

and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: "These are fairy- tales of times gone by

Soon shall We brand him on his snout

We have put them [i.e., the Makkans] to test even as We put to test the owners of the orchard when they vowed that they would gather the fruit of their orchard in the morning

without making any allowance (for the will of Allah)

Thereupon a calamity from your Lord passed over it while they were asleep

and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested

At daybreak they called out to one another

Hurry to your orchard if you would gather its fruit

So off they went, whispering to one another

No destitute person shall enter it today

They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit)

But as soon as they beheld the orchard, (they cried out): "We have certainly lost the way

rather, we are utterly ruined

The best among them said: "Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)

They cried out: "Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners

Then they began to reproach one another

They said: "Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed

Maybe our Lord will give us a better orchard in its place; to our Lord do we penitently turn

Such is the chastisement; and the chastisement of the Hereafter is assuredly even greater, if only they knew

Surely the God-fearing shall have Gardens of bliss with their Lord

What! Shall We treat those who have submitted (to Our command) like those who have acted as criminals

What is the matter with you? How ill do you judge

Or do you have a Book wherein you read

that (in the Hereafter) you shall have all that you choose for yourselves

Or have We sworn a covenant with you which We are bound to keep till the Day of Resurrection, (a covenant requiring that whatever you ordain for yourselves shall be yours)

Ask them: "Which of them can guarantee that

Or has something been guaranteed by any of those whom they associate with Allah in His Divinity?" If so, let them bring forth their associates, if they are truthful

On the Day when the dreadful calamity will unfold, when people will be summoned to prostrate themselves, and yet they will not be able to prostrate

Their eyes shall be downcast and ignominy shall overwhelm them. For when they were safe and sound, they were summoned to prostrate themselves, (and they refused)

So leave Me, (O Prophet), to deal with him who gives the lie to this Discourse. We shall draw them little by little (to their undoing) in a way that they will not know

I am giving them a respite. Great is My scheme

Or are you asking them for some compensation so that they feel burdened with debt

Or do they have any knowledge of the Unseen which they are now writing down

So bear with patience until the Judgement of your Lord comes, and do not belike the man in the fish (i.e., Jonah) who called out, choking with grief

had his Lord not bestowed His favour upon him, he would have been cast upon that barren shore (and would have remained there) in disgrace

But his Lord exalted him, and included him among His righteous servants

When the unbelievers hear this Exhortation, they look at you as though they would knock you off your feet with their (hostile) glances. They say: "Surely he is afflicted with madness

although this is nothing but an Exhortation (to goodness) for everyone in the world