The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Someone has (needlessly) demanded to experience the torment (of God), 1 which will inevitably seize the disbelievers. 2 from punishing them. He is the Lord of the Ascending Stairways, 3 (Whereby) the angels and the Spirit ascend unto Him in a Day whereof the span is fifty thousand years. 4 So be thou patient with a sweet patience; 5 they see it as being far off; 6 Whereas We see it impending. 7 On the day when the heaven shall be as molten copper 8 and the mountains shall be like puffs of wool. 9 no loyal friend shall question loyal friend, 10 though they may be in one another's sight: [for,] everyone who was lost in sin will on that Day but desire to ransom himself from suffering at the price of his own children, 11 his companion (wife), his brother, 12 And his family who had stood by him, 13 and of whoever [else] lives on earth, all of them - so that he could but save himself. 14 But never. It is pure white flame 15 It snatches away by the scalps, 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 amassed (riches) and hoarded. 18 ۞ Indeed man is created very impatient, greedy. 19 Being greatly grieved when evil afflicts him 20 And niggardly when good touches him; 21 Save worshippers. 22 and constant in their prayers. 23 And those in whose riches is a known right. 24 For the beggar and the destitute. 25 And those who believe in the Day of Judgement, 26 and go in fear of the chastisement of their Lord 27 (from their Lord's chastisement none feels secure) 28 who guard their privates 29 Save in regard to their spouses or those whom their right hands own; so verily they are not blameworthy 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 who testify to what they have witnessed, 33 and who are constant in their prayers. 34 These will dwell in Gardens, honoured. 35