The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
A questioner questioned concerning the doom about to fall 1 Upon the disbelievers, which none can avert, 2 From Allah, Lord of the Ascending Stairways 3 On that Day (of Judgment), long as fifty thousand years, the angels and the Spirit will ascend to Him. 4 Therefore, [O believers] behave with seemly patience. 5 Lo! they behold it afar off 6 But We see it (quite) near. 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 shall be as plucked wool-tufts, 9 No loyal friend will ask another loyal friend 10 (Though) they shall be made to see each other. The guilty one would fain redeem himself from the chastisement of that day by (sacrificing) his children, 11 And his wife and his brother, 12 and his kinsfolk who had stood by him, 13 And all those who are on the earth, to save himself. 14 By no means! Verily it is a Flame. 15 Taking away (burning completely) the head skin! 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 masseth and then hoardeth. 18 ۞ Indeed, mankind was created anxious: 19 when misfortune touches him he starts lamenting, 20 but when good comes upon him, he is grudging 21 Except those devoted to Salat (prayers) 22 Those who remain constant in their Salat (prayers); 23 And those within whose wealth is a known right 24 For the beggar and the destitute; 25 And those who accept the truth of the judgment day 26 who are afraid of the torment of their Lord, 27 for, behold, of their Sustainer's chastisement none may ever feel [wholly] secure; 28 And those who of their private parts are guards. 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 he who seeks to go beyond this, these it is that go beyond the limits-- 31 and who preserve their trusts and their covenant, 32 And those who are in their testimonies upright 33 And those who protect their prayers. 34 It is these who will be honoured in Gardens. 35