The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
A questioner asked of a chastisement about to fall 1 The Unbelievers, the which there is none to ward off,- 2 from punishing them. He is the 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 Verily! They see it (the torment) afar off, 6 but, We see it as near! 7 The day the sky becomes like molten brass, 8 And the hills become as flakes of wool, 9 no loyal friend shall question loyal 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 the family in which he was. 13 and whosoever is in the earth, all together, so that then it might deliver him. 14 But never. It is pure white flame 15 That would skin the scalp. 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 amass [wealth] and thereupon withhold [it from their fellow-men]. 18 ۞ Indeed, the human was created grudging and impatient. 19 When evil toucheth him, he is bewailing. 20 If good comes to him he holds back his hand, 21 Except those who establish prayer. 22 Those who remain constant in their Salat (prayers); 23 and those in whose wealth there is a known right 24 for such as ask [for help] and such as are deprived [of what is good in life]; 25 And those who believe the Day of Judgement to be true. 26 And those who fear the displeasure of their Lord,- 27 for none is secure from the punishment of their Lord, 28 who guard their carnal desires 29 Save in regard to their spouses or those whom their right hands own; so verily they are not blameworthy 30 But whoso seeketh more than that, those are they who are transgressors; 31 And those who fulfil their trusts and covenants, 32 And those who stand by their testimony 33 And those who [carefully] maintain their prayer: 34 Such shall dwell in the Gardens (i.e. Paradise) honoured. 35