The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
A questioner asked concerning a torment about to befall 1 to those who deny the truth. No power can hinder God 2 From Allah, the Lord of the ways of ascent. 3 The angels and the Ruh [Jibrael (Gabriel)] ascend to Him in a Day the measure whereof is fifty thousand years, 4 (Muhammad), exercise patience with no complaints. 5 They surely take it to be far away, 6 But We see it very near. 7 On the day when the heaven shall be as molten copper 8 And the hills become as flakes of wool, 9 and no bosom friend will enquire about any of his bosom friends 10 (Though) they shall be made to see each other. The guilty one would fain redeem himself from the chastisement of that day by (sacrificing) his children, 11 his wife, his brother, 12 And his nearest kindred who shelter him 13 And all, all that is on earth,- so it could deliver him: 14 By no means! Surely it is a flaming fire 15 Flaying off the scalp-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 wealth and hoarded it. 18 ۞ Surely man is created of a hasty temperament 19 When evil toucheth him, he is bewailing. 20 and tight-fisted when good fortune visits him, 21 Not so are the prayerful. 22 and are constant in their Prayer; 23 And those within whose wealth is a known right 24 For the beggar who asks, and for the unlucky who has lost his property and wealth, (and his means of living has been straitened); 25 those who firmly believe in the Day of Recompense, 26 And those who are fearful of the punishment 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 private parts, 29 Except with their wives and the (captives) whom their right hands possess,- for (then) they are not to be blamed, 30 But whoever seeks beyond that, then they are the transgressors - 31 And those who keep their trusts and covenants; 32 and those who are upright in their testimonies; 33 And those who keep a guard on their prayer, 34 Such shall dwell in the Gardens (i.e. Paradise) honoured. 35