The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
A questioner asked of a chastisement about to fall 1 which will inevitably seize the disbelievers. 2 No one can defend him against God, the Lord of the exalted positions. 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 Indeed, they see it [as] distant, 6 And We see it nigh. 7 Upon the day when heaven shall be as molten copper 8 And the hills become as flakes of wool, 9 And not a friend shall ask a friend, 10 (Though) they shall be made to see each other. The guilty one would fain redeem himself from the chastisement of that day by (sacrificing) his children, 11 and his spouse and his brother, 12 And his kindred who sheltered him, 13 And all those who are on the earth, to save himself. 14 But nay! Verily, all [that awaits him] is a raging flame, 15 A remover of exteriors. 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 wealth and covetously hoarded it. 18 ۞ Verily man is impatient by nature: 19 If evil befalls him he is perturbed; 20 And niggardly when good befalls him 21 Except those who pray, 22 Those who remain steadfast to their prayer; 23 And those in whose wealth there is a known right, 24 for the impoverished nonrequester and the requester, 25 and who accept as true the [coming of the] Day of Judgment; 26 and go in fear of the punishment of their Lord, 27 Lo! the doom of their Lord is that before which none can feel secure - 28 and guard their private parts 29 save from their wives and what their right hands own, then not being blameworthy 30 So those who desire more than this – it is they who are the transgressors. 31 And those who are faithful to their trusts and their covenant 32 and perform their witnessings, 33 And those who [carefully] maintain their prayer: 34 Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss). 35