The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
A doubter once demanded that punishment be immediately meted out, 1 Upon the disbelievers – the punishment that none can avert. 2 from punishing them. He is the Lord of the Ascending Stairways, 3 To whom the angels and the soul take a day to ascend, whose length is fifty thousand years. 4 So persevere with becoming patience. 5 They see the (Day) indeed as a far-off (event): 6 Whereas We see it impending. 7 On that Day the heaven shall become like molten copper, 8 and the mountains will be like tufts of wool, 9 And no friend will ask after a friend, 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 his wife and his brother. 12 And his kindred who sheltered him, 13 And all that are in the earth, if then it might deliver him. 14 But no! There is a raging blaze 15 stripping away his skin, 16 and it shall call him who withdrew and turned his back 17 And collect (wealth) and hide it (from spending it in the Cause of Allah). 18 ۞ Surely man was created fretful, 19 when misfortune touches him he starts lamenting, 20 but when they are fortunate, they become niggardly 21 except those who are steadfast 22 Those who are regular in their prayers. 23 and in whose possessions there is a due share, acknowledged [by them,] 24 for the impoverished nonrequester and the requester, 25 who acknowledge the Day of Judgment, 26 and are fearful of the punishment of their Lord; 27 for, behold, of their Sustainer's chastisement none may ever feel [wholly] secure; 28 And those who preserve their chastity 29 except from their spouses and those whom they rightfully possess [through wedlock], for which they incur no blame -- 30 (but whoso seeks after more than that, they are the transgressors), 31 and those who fulfil their trusts and their covenants, 32 who testify to what they have witnessed, 33 and who are constant in their prayers. 34 Such shall dwell in the Gardens (i.e. Paradise) honoured. 35