The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
A questioner asked concerning a torment about to befall 1 Upon the disbelievers, which none can avert, 2 From God, the Lord of the steps (of progression), 3 The angels and the Ruh [Jibrael (Gabriel)] ascend to Him in a Day the measure whereof is fifty thousand years, 4 But be patient (O Muhammad) with a patience fair to see. 5 They surely take it to be far away, 6 But We see it very near. 7 On that Day the heaven shall become like molten copper, 8 and the mountains become like wool, 9 And no friend will ask [anything of] a friend, 10 though they may be in one another's sight: [for,] everyone who was lost in sin will on that Day but desire to ransom himself from suffering at the price of his own children, 11 His wife and his brother, 12 his kinsmen who gave him refuge (from hardship) 13 and all the people of the earth, if that could deliver him. 14 By no means! Verily it is a Flame. 15 A fire that melts the hide. 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 collect (wealth) and hide it (from spending it in the Cause of Allah). 18 ۞ Lo! man was created anxious, 19 When they are afflicted, they complain, 20 but when they are fortunate, they become niggardly 21 Except the observers of prayer - 22 and are constant in their Prayer; 23 They are those who assign a certain share of their property 24 for the beggar and the outcast, 25 And those who believe the Day of Judgement to be true. 26 And those who are fearful of their Lord's torment 27 Verily! The torment of their Lord is that before which none can feel secure, 28 And those who guard their sex except from their wives and women slaves of old 29 Except with their wives and the (captives) whom their right hands possess,- for (then) they are not to be blamed, 30 whereas such as seek to go beyond that [limit] are truly transgressors; 31 And those who keep their pledges and their covenant, 32 and perform their witnessings, 33 And those who of their prayer are observant. 34 Such shall dwell in the Gardens (i.e. Paradise) honoured. 35