The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
A questioner asked about a Penalty to befall- 1 to those who deny the truth. No power can hinder God 2 (A punishment) from Allah, the Owner of the Elevated Passages. 3 The angels and the spirit ascend unto him in a Day the measure whereof is (as) fifty thousand years: 4 So be thou patient with a sweet patience; 5 Indeed, they see it [as] distant, 6 And We behold it nigh. 7 It shall befall on a Day whereon the heaven shall become like unto dregs of oil. 8 and the mountains will become like tufts of wool, 9 No loyal friend will ask another loyal friend 10 though they shall be within sight of each other. The guilty one will gladly ransom himself from the torment of that Day by sacrificing his own children, 11 And his wife and his brother 12 And the nearest of his kinsfolk who gave him shelter, 13 And all those that are in the earth, (wishing) then (that) this might deliver him. 14 By no means! It will be the fierce 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 amassed (riches) and hoarded. 18 ۞ Verily man is formed impatient. 19 If evil befalls him he is perturbed; 20 And niggardly when good befalls him 21 Except the observers of prayer - 22 and continue at their prayers, 23 And those in whose wealth there is a fixed portion. 24 for those that ask and those that are dispossessed, 25 And those who hold to the truth of the Day of Judgment; 26 And those who are fearful of their Lord's doom - 27 Lo! the doom of their Lord is that before which none can feel secure - 28 And those who guard their private parts 29 Except with their wives and the bondwomen in their possession, for there is no reproach on them. 30 But those who trespass beyond this are transgressors;- 31 and those who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges; 32 And those who stand by their testimony 33 And those who guard their Salat (prayers) well. 34 Those shall be in Gardens, high-honoured. 35