The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
A questioner asked of a chastisement about to fall 1 (a chastisement meant) for the unbelievers, one which none can avert; 2 From Allah, the Lord of the ways of Ascent. 3 (Whereby) the angels and the Spirit ascend unto Him in a Day whereof the span is fifty thousand years. 4 Therefore, [O believers] behave with seemly patience. 5 behold, men look upon that [reckoning] as something far away 6 but We see it is nigh. 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 tufts of wool 9 And no familiar friend will ask a question of his 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 his companion wife, his brother, 12 and his kinsfolk who had stood by him, 13 and all those on earth. 14 But nay! for lo! it is the fire of hell 15 It snatches away by the scalps, 16 and it shall call him who withdrew and turned his back 17 And accumulated wealth and hoarded it. 18 ۞ Indeed man is created very impatient, greedy. 19 [As a rule,] whenever misfortune touches him, he is filled with self-pity; 20 And niggardly when good befalls him 21 But not so the worshippers 22 who are steadfast in prayer; 23 And in whose wealth there is a right acknowledged 24 For him who begs and for him who is denied (good) 25 And those who accept the truth of the judgment day 26 who are afraid of the torment of their Lord, 27 surely the chastisement of their Lord is a thing none can feel secure from – 28 who guard their privates 29 save from their wives and what their right hands own, then not being blameworthy 30 But those who trespass beyond this are transgressors;- 31 and those who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges; 32 and perform their witnessings, 33 And those who protect their prayers. 34 These it is who in the gardens [of paradise] shall be honoured! 35