The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
A caller supplicated about a punishment to fall on 1 to those who deny the truth. No power can hinder God 2 From Allah, Lord of the Ascending Stairways 3 by which the angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in one Day the duration of which is fifty thousand years. 4 So be patient with gracious patience. 5 behold, men look upon that [reckoning] as something far away 6 While we behold it nigh: 7 The Day that the sky will be like the boiling filth of oil, (or molten copper or silver or lead, etc.). 8 and the mountains become like wool, 9 No loyal friend will ask another loyal friend 10 although they shall be within sight of one another. The guilty one would fain ransom himself from the torment of that Day by offering his children, 11 And his spouse and his brother 12 And his kindred who sheltered him, 13 and all the people of the earth, if that could deliver him. 14 But nay! for lo! it is the fire of hell 15 snatching away the scalp, 16 and drag into it anyone who has turned away (from obeying God), 17 And masseth and then hoardeth. 18 ۞ Indeed, mankind was created anxious: 19 When they are afflicted, they complain, 20 and tight-fisted when good fortune visits him, 21 Save worshippers. 22 Who are constant at their worship 23 In whose wealth a due share is included 24 for those that ask and those that are dispossessed, 25 And those who believe in the Day of Judgment, 26 And those who fear the punishment of their Lord, -- 27 Verily the torment of their Lord is not a thing to feel secure from. 28 those who preserve their chastity 29 Except with their wives and the (captives) whom their right hands possess,- for (then) they are not to be blamed, 30 But whoever seeks beyond that, then they are the transgressors - 31 and who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges: 32 who testify to what they have witnessed, 33 and (finally) those who do not miss their ritual - prayers at the prescribed times; 34 They will be honoured in the Gardens of Bliss. 35