The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
One demanding, demanded the chastisement which must befall 1 to those who deny the truth. No power can hinder God 2 No one can defend him against God, the Lord of the exalted positions. 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 be thou patient with a sweet patience; 5 behold, men look upon that [reckoning] as something far away 6 but We see it near. 7 On the day when the heavens become like molten metal. 8 And the mountains will be like wool, 9 And no friend will ask [anything of] a friend, 10 They will be seeing them; the guilty will wish if only he could redeem himself from the punishment of that day, by offering his sons. 11 And his wife and his brother. 12 And the nearest of his kinsfolk who gave him shelter, 13 And all, all that is on earth,- so it could deliver him: 14 Nay, verily it is a furnace 15 That would skin the scalp. 16 It calleth him who turned and fled (from truth), 17 Who amasses and then hoards. 18 ۞ Human beings are created greedy. 19 bewailing when evil befalls him, 20 and tight-fisted when good fortune visits him, 21 Except those who establish prayer. 22 and continue at their prayers, 23 and in whose possessions there is a due share, acknowledged [by them,] 24 for the beggar and the outcast, 25 And those who believe in the Day of Recompense, 26 And those who fear the punishment of their Lord, -- 27 Indeed, the punishment of their Lord is not that from which one is safe - 28 And those who preserve their chastity 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, then it is those who are trespassers. 31 And those who fulfil their trusts and covenants, 32 And those who stand firm in their testimonies; 33 And those who [carefully] maintain their prayer: 34 They will be honoured in the Gardens of Bliss. 35