Surah Al-Qalam – Yousef Bin Noah Ahmad

Al-Qalam ("The Pen") is the 68th surah of the Quran, in the 29th juz. It is a Meccan surah of 52 verses, second in the traditional order of revelation, right after Al-Alaq. It defends the Prophet ﷺ against the charge of madness, praises his character, and warns the arrogant through the parable of the owners of a garden.

It opens with the letter Nun and an oath by the pen and what they write (68:1), which give it its two names, Al-Qalam and Nun. The first verses answer the Quraysh, who called the Prophet ﷺ possessed: by the grace of his Lord he is not mad, an unfailing reward awaits him, and "you are truly of a great character" (68:4). Asked about his character, Aisha replied: "His character was the Quran" (Muslim).

He is told not to yield to the deniers, nor to the swearer of oaths, the slanderer, the hinderer of good, whose only claim is wealth and sons (68:8-15). Then comes the parable of the owners of a garden (68:17-33), who swore to harvest it at dawn and leave nothing for the poor; they found it ravaged overnight and admitted their wrong. Such is the punishment of this world, and that of the Hereafter is greater.

The surah asks whether those who submit to God should be treated like the criminals (68:35), and describes the Day when the shin will be laid bare and people called to prostrate, while those who refused in this life will be unable to (68:42-43); al-Bukhari reports a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, describing this scene. The Prophet ﷺ is urged to be patient and not to be like the man of the whale, the prophet Yunus (68:48-50; see As-Saffat). It ends with the hostile stares of the disbelievers and a reminder that the Quran is a message to all the worlds (68:51-52). It is read alongside Al-Alaq and Al-Muzzammil, from the same early period.