The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
A supplicant asked for a punishment bound to happen 1 which will inevitably seize the disbelievers. 2 From Allah, Owner of the ascending steps. 3 On that Day (of Judgment), long as fifty thousand years, the angels and the Spirit will ascend to Him. 4 Therefore, [O believers] behave with seemly patience. 5 They surely take it to be far away, 6 But We see it (quite) near. 7 The day the sky becomes like molten brass, 8 And the mountains will be like flakes of wool, 9 even intimate friends will not inquire about their friends, 10 Though they will be given sight of them. The guilty man will long to be able to ransom himself from the punishment of that day at the price of his children 11 and of his spouse, and of his brother, 12 the kinsmen who gave him shelter, 13 and all persons of the earth, if only he could thus save himself. 14 No, in truth, it is a Furnace! 15 stripping away his skin, 16 and it shall call him who withdrew and turned his back 17 And accumulated wealth and hoarded it. 18 ۞ Lo! man was created anxious, 19 If evil befalls him he is perturbed; 20 and whenever good fortune comes to him, he selfishly withholds it [from others]. 21 Not so are the prayerful. 22 and constant in their prayers. 23 And in whose wealth there is a right acknowledged 24 For the beggar who asks, and for the unlucky who has lost his property and wealth, (and his means of living has been straitened); 25 And those who hold to the truth of the Day of Judgment; 26 And those who fear the displeasure of their Lord,- 27 for none may ever feel secure from the punishment of their Lord; 28 And those who guard their private parts 29 [not giving way to their desires] with any but their spouses - that is, those whom they rightfully possess [through wedlock]: for then, behold, they are free of all blame, 30 whereas such as seek to go beyond that [limit] are truly transgressors; 31 And those who keep their trusts and covenants; 32 And those who are in their testimonies upright 33 and who observe their prayers. 34 Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss). 35