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 Upon the infidels -- which none would be able to repel -- 2 (A punishment) from Allah, the Owner of the Elevated Passages. 3 Whereby the angels ascend unto Him and also the spirit, On a Day whereof the measure is fifty thousand years. 4 So be patient with gracious patience. 5 behold, they see it as if far off; 6 But We see it [as] near. 7 The day when the sky will become as molten copper, 8 And the mountains shall be as tufts of wool 9 and [when] no friend will ask about his friend, 10 although they shall be within sight of one another. The guilty one would fain ransom himself from the torment of that Day by offering his children, 11 his companion wife, his brother, 12 And his kin that sheltered him. 13 and of whoever [else] lives on earth, all of them - so that he could but save himself. 14 No! Indeed, it is the Flame [of Hell], 15 That would skin the scalp. 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 (riches) and hoarded. 18 ۞ Indeed, the human was created grudging and impatient. 19 [As a rule,] whenever misfortune touches him, he is filled with self-pity; 20 and whenever good fortune comes to him, he grows niggardly. 21 save those that pray 22 who are steadfast in prayer; 23 And those within whose wealth is a known right 24 for the beggar and the outcast, 25 who confirm the Day of Reckoning 26 and go in fear of the chastisement of their Lord 27 Indeed the punishment of their Lord is not a thing to be unafraid of! 28 And those who guard their chastity, 29 save from their wives and what their right hands own, then not being blameworthy 30 but those who go beyond that limit are transgressors; 31 and who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges: 32 who testify to what they have witnessed, 33 and are steadfast in their prayers. 34 It is these who will be honoured in Gardens. 35