(68:1) Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write. (68:2) By your Lord's Grace, you are not afflicted with madness, (68:3) and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward, (68:4) and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence. (68:5) So you will soon see, and they too will see, (68:6) which of you is afflicted with madness. (68:7) Surely your Lord knows well those who have strayed from His Way just as He knows well those who are on the Right Way. (68:8) Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; (68:9) they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant. (68:10) And do not yield to any contemptible swearer, (68:11) the fault-finder who goes around slandering, (68:12) the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; (68:13) the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble; (68:14) (who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons, (68:15) and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.” (68:16) Soon shall We brand him on his snout. (68:17) 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, (68:18) without making any allowance (for the will of Allah). (68:19) Thereupon a calamity from your Lord passed over it while they were asleep, (68:20) and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested. (68:21) At daybreak they called out to one another: (68:22) “Hurry to your orchard if you would gather its fruit.” (68:23) So off they went, whispering to one another: (68:24) “No destitute person shall enter it today.” (68:25) They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit). (68:26) But as soon as they beheld the orchard, (they cried out): “We have certainly lost the way; (68:27) rather, we are utterly ruined.” (68:28) The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?” (68:29) They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.” (68:30) Then they began to reproach one another. (68:31) They said: “Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed. (68:32) Maybe our Lord will give us a better orchard in its place; to our Lord do we penitently turn.” (68:33) Such is the chastisement; and the chastisement of the Hereafter is assuredly even greater, if only they knew. (68:34) Surely the God-fearing shall have Gardens of bliss with their Lord. (68:35) What! Shall We treat those who have submitted (to Our command) like those who have acted as criminals? (68:36) What is the matter with you? How ill do you judge! (68:37) Or do you have a Book wherein you read (68:38) that (in the Hereafter) you shall have all that you choose for yourselves? (68:39) 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)? (68:40) Ask them: “Which of them can guarantee that? (68:41) 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. (68:42) 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. (68:43) 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). (68:44) 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. (68:45) I am giving them a respite. Great is My scheme! (68:46) Or are you asking them for some compensation so that they feel burdened with debt?................