The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
One demanding, demanded the chastisement which must befall 1 Upon the disbelievers, which none can repel, 2 [since it will come] from God, unto whom there are many ways of ascent: 3 all the angels and all the inspiration [ever granted to man] ascend unto Him [daily,] in a day the length whereof is [like] fifty thousand years… 4 So, (O Prophet), persevere with gracious perseverance. 5 behold, men look upon that [reckoning] as something far away 6 While we behold it nigh: 7 On the Day the sky will be like murky oil, 8 And the mountains will be like wool, 9 and no friend will ask about his 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 spouse and his brother, 12 And his kin that harboured him 13 And whoever is on earth entirely [so] then it could save him. 14 But nay! Verily, all [that awaits him] is a raging flame, 15 stripping away his 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 hoarded (wealth) and withheld it. 18 ۞ VERILY, man is born with a restless disposition. 19 when evil visits him, impatient, 20 And niggardly when good befalls him 21 except those that pray, 22 Those who remain constant in their Salat (prayers); 23 And those within whose wealth is a known right 24 For those who beg, and for the needy who cannot even ask. 25 And those who believe in the Day of Judgment, 26 And those who are fearful of the chastisement of their Lord-- 27 for, behold, of their Sustainer's chastisement none may ever feel [wholly] secure; 28 and those who guard their private parts, 29 except from their spouses and those whom they rightfully possess [through wedlock], for which they incur no blame -- 30 But whosoever seeks beyond that, then it is those who are trespassers. 31 and who preserve their trusts and their covenant, 32 Who uphold their testimonies, 33 and who observe their prayers. 34 Those shall be in Gardens, high-honoured. 35