The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
A questioner asked about a Penalty to befall- 1 To the disbelievers; of it there is no preventer. 2 from God, the Lord of the Stairways. 3 To Him the angels and the Spirit (Gabriel) ascend in a day, the measure of which is fifty thousand years. 4 So, (O Prophet), persevere with gracious perseverance. 5 behold, men look upon that [reckoning] as something far away 6 while We think that it is near at hand. 7 The Day that the sky will be like the boiling filth of oil, (or molten copper or silver or lead, etc.). 8 And the mountains will be like wool, 9 and no bosom friend will enquire about any of his bosom friends 10 Though within sight of one another. The sinner would like to ransom himself from the torment of that Day by offering his sons, 11 And his wife and his brother, 12 and his kinsfolk who had stood by him, 13 And all who are on the earth; so that this might deliver him. 14 By no means! For the raging flames of the fire 15 will strip-off the flesh 16 It shall claim him who turned and fled (from truth), 17 and amassed wealth and hoarded it. 18 ۞ Surely man is created of a hasty temperament 19 when evil visits him, impatient, 20 And niggardly when good reaches him;- 21 But not so the worshippers 22 Those who are constant in their prayer 23 And those in whose riches is a known right. 24 for those that ask and those that are dispossessed, 25 and those who believe in the Day of Judgement 26 And those who fear the torment of their Lord, 27 for none may ever feel secure from the punishment of their Lord; 28 and guard their private parts 29 except from their wives and what their right hands own, for these they are not blameworthy. 30 But he who seeks to go beyond this, these it is that go beyond the limits-- 31 And those who respect their trusts and covenants; 32 And those who stand firm in their testimonies; 33 And those who guard (the sacredness) of their worship;- 34 Those shall dwell in Gardens, honoured. 35