Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
1 Nūn.
By the Pen and what they write:
2 you are not, by your Lord’s blessing, crazy,
3 and yours indeed will be an everlasting reward,
4 and indeed you possess a great character.
5 You will see and they will see,
6 which one of you is crazy.
7 Indeed your Lord knows best
those who stray from His way,
and He knows best those who are guided.
8 So do not obey the deniers,
9 who are eager that you should be pliable,
so that they may be pliable [towards you].
10 And do not obey any vile swearer,
11 scandal-monger, talebearer,
12 hinderer of all good, sinful transgressor,
13 callous and, on top of that, baseborn,
14 — [only] because he has wealth and children.
15 When Our signs are recited to him,
he says, ‘Myths of the ancients!’
16 Soon We shall brand him on the snout.
17 Indeed we have tested them 1
just as We tested the People of the Garden
when they vowed they would gather its fruit
at dawn,
18 and they did not make any exception.2
19 Then a visitation from your Lord visited it 3
1 That is, the people of Makkah, through famine and hunger.
2 That is, for Allah’s will, by saying, for instance, ‘God willing.’ See 18:24
3 That is, the garden.
