The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
AN INQUIRER ASKED for the affliction that is to come 1 which will inevitably seize the disbelievers. 2 From Allah, the Lord of the ways of Ascent. 3 Whereby the angels ascend unto Him and also the spirit, On a Day whereof the measure is fifty thousand years. 4 Therefore patiently endure, in the best manner (O dear Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him). 5 Surely they think it to be far off, 6 While we behold it nigh: 7 On that Day the heaven shall become like molten copper, 8 And the hills become as flakes of wool, 9 No loyal friend will ask another loyal friend 10 Though they will be given sight of them. The guilty man will long to be able to ransom himself from the punishment of that day at the price of his children 11 And his wife and his brother 12 His kindred who sheltered him, 13 And all that are in the earth, so that it might save him. 14 But no! There is a raging blaze 15 It snatches away by the scalps, 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 amass [wealth] and thereupon withhold [it from their fellow-men]. 18 ۞ Indeed man is created very impatient, greedy. 19 when evil visits him, impatient, 20 and whenever good fortune comes to him, he grows niggardly. 21 Not so, however, those who consciously turn towards God in prayer. 22 Who are at their prayer constant. 23 those in whose wealth is a right known 24 for those that ask and those that are dispossessed, 25 and who accept as true the [coming of the] Day of Judgment; 26 and go in fear of the chastisement of their Lord 27 Surely the chastisement of their Lord is (a thing) not to be felt secure of-- 28 And those who guard their private parts 29 Are free of blame, 30 but any who seeks to go beyond that, it is indeed they who are the transgressors, 31 And those who respect their trusts and covenants; 32 and standby their witnessing, 33 and (finally) those who do not miss their ritual - prayers at the prescribed times; 34 These will dwell in Gardens, honoured. 35