12 – In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.

Nun. By the pen and by what they inscribe (1)
—you are not, by the grace of your Lord, a madman; (2)
indeed, for you there is a reward that shall never be cut off; (3)
and you are surely upon an exalted standard of character. (4)
Soon you will see—and they will see— (5)
which of you is the one put to trial. (6)
Your Lord knows best who has strayed from His path, and He knows best those who are rightly guided. (7) ⦗al-Qalam 1–7⦘.

Allah swears by “the pen,” a collective term covering every pen with which all branches of knowledge are committed to writing, whether in prose or in verse. The pen itself, together with everything that is written by it, is among His tremendous signs—deserving that He swear by it to proclaim the innocence of His Prophet Muhammad ﷺ from the charge of madness leveled by his enemies. Thus He cleared him of that slander through His gracious favor, having endowed him with perfect intellect, sound judgment, and decisive speech—speech that ranks among the finest ever set down by pens or recorded by humankind. Such is felicity in this worldly life.

He then mentioned the Prophet’s felicity in the Hereafter, saying, “and for you there is a reward that shall never be cut off,” meaning: an immense reward—as the indefiniteness of the noun indicates—one that will never cease but will continue unabated. This is in recompense for the lofty stations he ﷺ attained in religion and for his sublime conduct. Hence He said, “and you are surely upon an exalted standard of character,” whereby he ﷺ surpassed all of creation, outstripping both the earliest and the latest generations.

His magnificent character—ʿĀʾishah ﵂ explained—was this very Noble Quran itself, as in His words: “Show forgiveness, command what is right, and turn away from the ignorant” ⦗al-Aʿrāf 7:199⦘; “So by a mercy from Allah you were gentle with them” ⦗Āl ʿImrān 3:159⦘ (1); “There has certainly come to you a messenger from among yourselves; grievous to him is what you suffer; he is anxious over you, to the believers he is compassionate and merciful” ⦗al-Tawbah 9:128⦘—and other similar verses that bear witness to his ﷺ being endowed with those qualities.