The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Someone has (needlessly) demanded to experience the torment (of God), 1 those who deny the truth. [Know, then, that] nothing can ward it off, 2 From Allah, Lord of the Ascending Stairways 3 The angels and the Ruh [Jibrael (Gabriel)] ascend to Him in a Day the measure whereof is fifty thousand years, 4 Therefore, [O believer,] endure all adversity with goodly patience: 5 Lo! they behold it afar off 6 but We see it to be very near. 7 It shall befall on a Day whereon the heaven shall become like unto dregs of oil. 8 And the mountains will be like 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 spouse and his brother. 12 And the family in which he was. 13 and of whoever [else] lives on earth, all of them - so that he could but save himself. 14 Nay, verily it is a furnace 15 That would skin the scalp. 16 It calleth him who turned and fled (from truth), 17 and amassed wealth and hoarded it. 18 ۞ Indeed, man is born impatient: 19 Fretful when evil befalleth him 20 and whenever good fortune comes to him, he grows niggardly. 21 Except the observers of prayer - 22 and constant in their prayers. 23 those in whose wealth is a right known 24 for those that ask and those that are dispossessed, 25 And those who believe in the Day of Judgment, 26 And those who fear the torment of their Lord, 27 Indeed, the punishment of their Lord is not that from which one is safe - 28 And those who preserve their chastity 29 Except from their wives or those their right hands possess, for indeed, they are not to be blamed - 30 But he who seeks to go beyond this, these it is that go beyond the limits-- 31 and those who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges; 32 And those who stand firm in their testimonies; 33 And those who keep a guard on their prayer, 34 all these shall live honourably in the Gardens. 35