The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
A questioner asked concerning a torment about to befall 1 (a chastisement meant) for the unbelievers, one which none can avert; 2 From Allah, Lord of the Ascending Stairways 3 all the angels and all the inspiration [ever granted to man] ascend unto Him [daily,] in a day the length whereof is [like] fifty thousand years… 4 So be thou patient with a sweet patience; 5 behold, men look upon that [reckoning] as something far away 6 And We behold it nigh. 7 On the day when the heaven shall be as molten copper 8 The mountains like the tufts of (carded) wool, 9 And no friend will ask concerning his friend. 10 Though within sight of one another. The sinner would like to ransom himself from the torment of that Day by offering his sons, 11 His wife and his brother, 12 And his family who had stood by him, 13 and whosoever is in the earth, altogether, so that it might save him. 14 But never. It is pure white flame 15 A fire that melts the hide. 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 hoarded (wealth) and withheld it. 18 ۞ Lo! man was created anxious, 19 When evil touches him, impatient, 20 and tight-fisted when good fortune visits him, 21 Not so are the prayerful. 22 Who are at their prayer constant. 23 And those in whose wealth there is a fixed portion. 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 believe in the Day of Recompense 26 And those who fear the displeasure of their Lord,- 27 Verily! The torment of their Lord is that before which none can feel secure, 28 and those who guard their private parts, 29 Except with their wives and the (women slaves and captives) whom their right hands possess, for (then) they are not to be blamed, 30 So those who desire more than this – it is they who are the transgressors. 31 And those who are faithful to their trusts and their covenant 32 And those who are firm upon their testimonies. 33 And those who protect their prayers. 34 Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss). 35