The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
AN INQUIRER ASKED for the affliction that is to come 1 those who deny the truth. [Know, then, that] nothing can ward it off, 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 Therefore, [O believers] behave with seemly patience. 5 They deem it to be remote. 6 Whereas We see it impending. 7 On the day when the heaven shall be as molten copper 8 and the mountains will become like dyed tufts of wool, 9 and no bosom friend will enquire about any of his bosom friends 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 his wife, his brother, 12 his kinsmen who gave him refuge (from hardship) 13 and whosoever is in the earth, altogether, so that it might save him. 14 By no means! Verily, it will be the Fire of Hell! 15 stripping away his skin, 16 It shall insistently summon him who turned his back and retreated, 17 Who amasses and then hoards. 18 ۞ Indeed, mankind was created anxious: 19 when evil visits him, impatient, 20 but when they are fortunate, they become niggardly 21 except those that pray 22 Who persevere in devotion, 23 and in whose possessions there is a due share, acknowledged [by them,] 24 for the beggar and the outcast, 25 And those who believe in the Day of Recompense 26 and fear the chastisement of their Lord – 27 the punishment of their Lord is not something for them to feel secure of, 28 And those who preserve their chastity 29 except from their wives and slave girls, in which case they are not to be blamed, 30 And whosoever seeketh beyond that, then it is those who are the trespassers 31 and those who fulfil their trusts and their covenants, 32 and those who are upright in their testimonies; 33 And those who keep a guard on their prayer, 34 These it is who in the gardens [of paradise] shall be honoured! 35