Surah Al-Qalam: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

Nun... By Nun, one of the letters that represent the sounds of your own language, and by the pen that writes it, and by the truths it writes: O Muhammad! You are a prophet through the blessing your Lord has bestowed on you. Pay no attention when, because you criticize the systems of life of those who deny the truth and rise up against them, they say, “Are you out of your mind? Would we ever let you change our way of life?” You are neither bewitched, as they claim, nor a poet.

While calling people to live in keeping with the reasons for their creation, you will receive help from Allah. There is a reward for you that will never run out.

Contrary to their accusations, you are a person of excellent moral character and sound mind.

Soon you, and those who oppose the system of life to which We invite people, will see which of you has lost his mind.

Your Lord certainly knows best who is on the right path and of sound mind, and who does not use his reason, chooses ingratitude, and goes astray.

Invite people to live an Allah-centered life, and never yield to those who call what you say lies and do not accept the call!

They want you to compromise on at least part of the call you make in Allah’s name and give it up, and to be, as you were before your prophethood, someone who says nothing against the systems of shirk (associating partners with Allah). If you were like that, you would treat them well, and they would treat you well.

Never yield to those who constantly swear false oaths to mislead people; to the sower of discord who hinders good and stirs up mischief; to the discourteous, self-serving one who has no regard for right or law; to the man who is recklessly drawn to worldly wealth. Some of them are also wrongdoers who boast of their great wealth and many sons and see themselves as mighty.

When Allah’s verses are recited to them, they say, “These are the tales of the ancients.” Soon We will rub the noses of these insolent, tyrannical, and arrogant people in the dirt and humiliate them.

Just as We tested those whom We made owners of gardens and who, despite the blessings We gave them, did not take Us into account at all, We will also test these people who associate partners with Allah. Remember how those whom We had made owners of the gardens, fully sure of themselves, had agreed with one another to go and gather their crop; they felt no need to say, “If Allah permits,” and it did not even cross their minds that Allah is the true owner of everything. While they were asleep, your Lord struck the gardens they imagined they owned with a calamity and turned them into bone-dry, pitch-black debris. Unaware of this, they called out to one another early in the morning, “Come on, we must go to our gardens early for the harvest!” and set off, and all along the way they talked about finishing the job before the poor and needy could come swarming around them.

When they reached their gardens, they froze at what they saw. In bewilderment they began saying to one another, “Have we lost our way and come to some other place?” But when they realized the truth, they said, “Now we are ruined; we have suddenly become poor.” Their companion, the one among them who was of sound mind and able to think clearly, said, “Did I not tell you not to be so sure of yourselves, not to put Allah out of your minds, and to honor the right of the poor and needy?”

At this, the owners of the garden realized their mistake and said, “Our Lord! You are the true owner of everything. By thinking ignorantly and unjustly and acting accordingly, we have wronged ourselves.” Confessing their guilt and acknowledging their helplessness, they reproached themselves and repented. Then they turned to one another and said, “Our Lord will forgive us, if He wills; and if we turn to Him and strive to live in accordance with His good pleasure, perhaps He will give us something better than this.” Such is the punishment in this worldly life for those who do not take Allah into account. But the punishment such people will face in the Hereafter will be far more severe.

Allah has prepared gardens of Paradise, a home of blessings, for those who live with a sense of responsibility toward Him.

Those who are aware that Allah is the true owner of wealth and property and use it in line with His good pleasure are certainly not the same as those who turn their backs on Him, grow arrogant, boast, and see themselves as powerful and self-sufficient.

O people! What is the matter with you, that you brazenly presume to lay down rulings about what Allah has entrusted to you and to use it as though you were its true owners? Or do you have a promise you have taken from Us on this matter, or a book in your hands stating that you will possess whatever you wish of what Allah has created? Or does Allah have partners in His dominion, and was it they who gave you such authority?

On the Day of Reckoning you will face the punishment for having behaved this way; falling prostrate will be of no use to you, and you will be left powerless, wretched, and humiliated. Yet in your worldly life you had been told that you would face this Day.

O Prophet! Do not grieve over what is done by those who, although they are invited through the revealed verses to live by a system and a morality whose limits Allah has set, turn away from it and call you a liar! Leave them to Me. We will draw them closer to the punishment step by step, in ways they do not perceive. For now We are granting them respite so that they may use their reason and turn to what is right. In the end, of course, no one can escape the reckoning.

They act as though, in inviting them to what is right, you were asking them for a wage in return, and as though that were why they keep away from you. Or are they receiving news from the unseen that this stance of theirs is justified and right?

Patiently keep on inviting them to follow the system of life that is the reason for their creation. Do not lose heart like the Prophet Jonah, whom the fish swallowed, and do not give up the struggle in despair. He was forgiven because he regretted what he had done, repented, and turned back to his Lord. Had he not been forgiven for his sincere regret, he would have been abandoned to solitude in a state of disgrace.

When those who associate partners with Allah and the disbelievers hear Allah’s call, they glare at you with such hostility that it is as if they would knock you down with their eyes, and they say to one another, “This man has definitely gone mad; otherwise he would never even think of changing the system of life we have followed for so many years, nor would he attempt something so impossible.”

Yet the system of life to which they are being invited in Allah’s name is a counsel that calls all people to the reason for their creation; it is a counsel for happiness, justice, freedom, and liberation from servitude to fellow human beings.