The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
AN INQUIRER ASKED for the affliction that is to come 1 The infidels, of which there is no averter. 2 No one can defend him against God, the Lord of the exalted positions. 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 Wherefore be thou patient with a becoming patience. 5 behold, men look upon that [reckoning] as something far away 6 but We see it near at hand. 7 [It will take place] on a Day when the sky will be like molten lead, 8 and the mountains shall be as plucked wool-tufts, 9 And friend shall not ask of 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 kin that harboured him 13 And all, all that is on earth,- so it could deliver him: 14 By no means! It will be the fierce flame 15 That would skin the scalp. 16 It will summon whoever turns his back and flees, 17 and who accumulated wealth without spending it for a good purpose. 18 ۞ VERILY, man is born with a restless disposition. 19 Fretful when evil touches him; 20 but when they are fortunate, they become niggardly 21 save those that pray 22 Those who remain steadfast to their prayer; 23 and in whose possessions there is a due share, acknowledged [by them,] 24 for those that ask and those that are dispossessed, 25 And those who believe the Day of Judgement to be true. 26 and go in fear of the chastisement of their Lord 27 Surely the chastisement of their Lord is (a thing) not to be felt secure of-- 28 And those who guard their sex except from their wives and women slaves of old 29 Except in the case of their wives or those whom their right hands possess-- for these surely are not to be blamed, 30 But whoso seeketh more than that, those are they who are transgressors; 31 and who preserve their trusts and their covenant, 32 And those who stand firm in their testimonies. 33 And those who keep a guard on their prayer, 34 Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss). 35