The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
A doubter once demanded that punishment be immediately meted out, 1 to those who deny the truth. No power can hinder God 2 From Allah, the Lord of all pinnacles. 3 To Him the angels and the Spirit mount up, in a day whereof the measure is fifty thousand years. 4 So persevere with becoming patience. 5 Surely they think it to be far off, 6 but We see it near. 7 The day when the sky will become as molten copper, 8 and the mountains will be like tufts of wool, 9 And friend shall not ask of friend 10 though they may see each other. A sinner will wish that he could save himself from the torment of that day by sacrificing his children, 11 And his wife and his brother 12 his kin who sheltered him, 13 and whosoever is in the earth, all together, so that then it might deliver him. 14 Never! That is indeed a blazing fire. 15 Flaying off the scalp-skin. 16 It shall claim him who turned and fled (from truth), 17 And collected [wealth] and hoarded. 18 ۞ Indeed, man is born impatient: 19 Irritable (discontented) when evil touches him; 20 and tight-fisted when good fortune visits him, 21 except those that pray 22 Who persevere in devotion, 23 and in whose possessions there is a due share, acknowledged [by them,] 24 for the needy and the deprived, 25 and those who believe in the Day of Judgement 26 and are fearful of the punishment of their Lord; 27 Surely no one can be secure from the punishment of his Lord, -- 28 And those who guard their sex except from their wives and women slaves of old 29 except in regard to their spouses and those whom their right hands possess, for in regard to them they are not reproachable, 30 but those who go beyond that limit are transgressors; 31 and who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges: 32 and those who stand by their testimony 33 and who are constant in their prayers. 34 Those shall be in Gardens, high-honoured. 35