— 52 verses
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 rea
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