Nun. By the Pen and by that which the writers are writing,1 you are not, by the grace of your Lord, mad.2 And surely you have a reward that shall never end,3 and surely you are exalted to a high and noble character.4 Soon you shall see as well as they, which of you is afflicted with madness. Your Lord best knows those who have strayed from His Way and He best knows also those who are rightly guided. Therefore, do not at all yield to the beliers of the Truth. They indeed wish that you should compromise a little, then they also would compromises5 Do not at all yield to any mean swearer of many oaths,6 who is a slanderer and a backbiter, a hinderer of good7 and a transgressor, wicked and oppressive,8 and above all, ignoble by birth,9 only because he has abundance of wealth and children.10 When Our Revelations are recited to him, he says, "These are tales of the ancient times." Soon We shall brand him on the snout.11 We have tried them (the people of Makkah) just as we had tried the owners of a certain garden,12 when they swore that they would surely pluck the fruit of their garden next morning, and they did not make any exception.13 But while they lay asleep at night, a calamity from your Lord visited the garden and it became as though it had already been reaped. In the morning they called out to one another, saying: "Go forth early to your tilth14 if you would pluck fruit." So they set out, whispering to one another, "Let no needy man approach you in the garden today." They hurried off early (to their garden) with the resolve not to give away anything15 as though they had the power (to pluck the fruit). But when they saw the garden, they said, "We have lost our way!-Nay, but we have been left destitute!"16 The best man among them said, "Did I not tell you, `Why do you not glorify (Allah)'?"17 They cried out, "Glorified is our Lord: we were indeed sinners!" Then they began to blame one another.18 At last, they said, "Alas for us! Indeed we had become rebellious. It may well be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better garden than this. We turn to our Lord." Such is the torment, and the torment of the Hereafter is far greater. Would that they knew this!