The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
One demanding, demanded the chastisement which must befall 1 The Unbelievers, the which there is none to ward off,- 2 No one can defend him against God, the Lord of the exalted positions. 3 To Him the angels and the Spirit (Gabriel) ascend in a day, the measure of which is fifty thousand years. 4 So be thou patient with a sweet patience; 5 behold, men look upon that [reckoning] as something far away 6 but We see it to be very near. 7 The day the sky becomes like molten brass, 8 And then the mountains shall become like unto wool dyed. 9 And no friend will ask [anything of] a friend, 10 though they are in sight of each other. To ransom himself from the punishment of that Day, the sinner will wish that he might even ransom himself by his sons, 11 His wife and his brother, 12 And his nearest kindred who shelter him 13 and whosoever is in the earth, altogether, so that it might save him. 14 But no! There is a raging blaze 15 tearing away his skin! 16 and it shall call him who withdrew and turned his back 17 and amass [wealth] and thereupon withhold [it from their fellow-men]. 18 ۞ Verily man is formed impatient. 19 Irritable (discontented) when evil touches him; 20 If good comes to him he holds back his hand, 21 Except the observers of prayer - 22 Who persevere in devotion, 23 And those within whose wealth is a known right 24 For the beggar and the destitute; 25 and who accept as true the [coming of the] Day of Judgment; 26 And those who fear the torment of their Lord, 27 Surely no one can be secure from the punishment of his Lord, -- 28 and 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 whoso seeketh more than that, those are they who are transgressors; 31 And those who respect their trusts and covenants; 32 And those who stand firm in their testimonies. 33 And those who [carefully] maintain their prayer: 34 It is these who will be honoured in Gardens. 35