The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Someone has (needlessly) demanded to experience the torment (of God), 1 To the disbelievers; of it there is no preventer. 2 From Allah, Lord of the Ascending Stairways 3 by which the angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in one Day the duration of which is fifty thousand years. 4 Therefore, [O believers] behave with seemly patience. 5 behold, men look upon that [reckoning] as something far away 6 but We see it near at hand. 7 The day when the sky will be like molten silver. 8 And the mountains will be like flakes of wool, 9 And not a friend shall ask a 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 And his wife and his brother. 12 And his kindred who sheltered him, 13 And all those that are in the earth, (wishing) then (that) this might deliver him. 14 But nay! for lo! it is the fire of hell 15 tearing away his skin! 16 It calls out to him who reverted and turned away. 17 And collect (wealth) and hide it (from use)! 18 ۞ Verily man is impatient by nature: 19 Being greatly grieved when evil afflicts him 20 but when they are fortunate, they become niggardly 21 Except those who pray, 22 Who persevere in devotion, 23 And those in whose wealth there is a known right, 24 For the needy and those dispossessed, 25 those who firmly believe in the Day of Recompense, 26 And those who fear the displeasure of their Lord,- 27 the punishment of their Lord is not something for them to feel secure of, 28 and who are mindful of their chastity, 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 who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges: 32 and who stand firm whenever they bear witness; 33 And those who protect their prayers. 34 Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss). 35