The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
A supplicant asked for a punishment bound to happen 1 To the disbelievers; of it there is no preventer. 2 [It is] from Allah, owner of the ways of ascent. 3 To Him the angels and the Spirit (Gabriel) ascend in a day, the measure of which is fifty thousand years. 4 So be patient with gracious patience. 5 Lo! they behold it afar off 6 Whereas We see it impending. 7 It shall befall on a Day whereon the heaven shall become like unto dregs of oil. 8 and the mountains will become like tufts of wool, 9 And not a friend shall ask a friend, 10 Though they will be put in sight of each other,- the sinner's desire will be: Would that he could redeem himself from the Penalty of that Day by (sacrificing) his children, 11 His wife and his brother, 12 the kinsmen who gave him shelter, 13 and all persons of the earth, if only he could thus save himself. 14 By no means! It will be the fierce flame 15 That would skin the scalp. 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 and amassed wealth and covetously hoarded it. 18 ۞ Verily man is formed impatient. 19 When evil touches him, impatient, 20 and tight-fisted when good fortune visits him, 21 Except those who establish prayer. 22 who are constant in prayer; 23 In whose wealth a due share is included 24 For the beggar and the destitute; 25 And those who believe in the Day of Judgement, 26 And those who are fearful of their Lord's doom - 27 Lo! the doom of their Lord is that before which none can feel secure - 28 who guard their privates 29 except from their wives and what their right hands own, for these they are not blameworthy. 30 But whosoever seeks beyond that, then it is those who are trespassers. 31 and who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges: 32 who testify to what they have witnessed, 33 And those who are attentive at their worship. 34 They will be honoured in the Gardens of Bliss. 35