The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
A requester seeks the punishment that will take place – 1 Upon the disbelievers – the punishment that none can avert. 2 From Allah, Lord of the Ascending Stairways 3 Whereby the angels ascend unto Him and also the spirit, On a Day whereof the measure is fifty thousand years. 4 So, (O Prophet), persevere with gracious perseverance. 5 Verily! They see it (the torment) afar off, 6 but We see it to be very near. 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 become like dyed tufts of wool, 9 And no friend will ask after a friend, 10 though they may be in one another's sight: [for,] everyone who was lost in sin will on that Day but desire to ransom himself from suffering at the price of his own children, 11 And his wife and his brother, 12 And his family who had stood by him, 13 And all those who are in the earth – then only if the redemption saves him! 14 But never. It is pure white flame 15 Taking away (burning completely) the head skin! 16 Calling: "[O Kafir (O disbeliever in Allah, His angels, His Book, His Messengers, Day of Resurrection and in Al-Qadar (Divine Preordainments), O Mushrik (O polytheist, disbeliever in the Oneness of Allah)] (all) such as turn their backs and turn away their faces (from Faith) [picking and swallowing them up from that great gathering of mankind (on the Day of Resurrection) just as a bird picks up a food-grain from the earth with its beak and swallows it up] [Tafsir Al-Qurtubi, Vol. 18, Page 289] 17 who amassed and hoarded. 18 ۞ Surely man is greedy by nature. 19 [As a rule,] whenever misfortune touches him, he is filled with self-pity; 20 and tight-fisted when good fortune visits him, 21 Not so are the prayerful. 22 Those who remain constant in their Salat (prayers); 23 And in whose wealth there is a right acknowledged 24 For him who begs and for him who is denied (good) 25 and who accept as true the [coming of the] Day of Judgment; 26 And those who fear the punishment of their Lord, -- 27 For their Lord's displeasure is the opposite of Peace and Tranquillity;- 28 And those who preserve their chastity 29 Except from their wives or those their right hands possess, for indeed, they are not to be blamed - 30 But those who seek more than this will be transgressors; 31 And those who keep their pledges and their covenant, 32 and who stand firm whenever they bear witness; 33 and are steadfast in their prayers. 34 These it is who in the gardens [of paradise] shall be honoured! 35