The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
AN INQUIRER ASKED for the affliction that is to come 1 the unbelievers which none can prevent. 2 from God, the Lord of the Stairways. 3 To Him the angels and the Spirit (Gabriel) ascend in a day, the measure of which is fifty thousand years. 4 Therefore endure with a goodly patience. 5 They see the (Day) indeed as a far-off (event): 6 But We see it (quite) near. 7 On the day when the heaven shall be as molten copper 8 The mountains like the tufts of (carded) wool, 9 And no friend will ask [anything of] a 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 of his spouse, and of his brother, 12 the kinsmen who gave him shelter, 13 And whoever is on earth entirely [so] then it could save him. 14 By no means! Verily, it will be the Fire of Hell! 15 stripping away his skin, 16 It shall call him who turneth back and backslideth. 17 And collected [wealth] and hoarded. 18 ۞ Lo! man was created anxious, 19 When evil touches him, impatient, 20 and tight-fisted when good fortune visits him, 21 except those that pray, 22 and are constant in their Prayer; 23 And those in whose wealth exists a recognised right, 24 For the beggar who asks, and for the unlucky who has lost his property and wealth, (and his means of living has been straitened); 25 And those who testify to the Day of Requital. 26 and go in fear of the punishment of their Lord, 27 for none is secure from the punishment of their Lord, 28 who guard their privates 29 Except in the case of their wives or those whom their right hands possess-- for these surely are not to be blamed, 30 But whosoever seeks beyond that, they are the transgressors. 31 and those who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges; 32 who testify to what they have witnessed, 33 And those who of their prayer are observant. 34 They will be honoured in the Gardens of Bliss. 35