The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
A doubter once demanded that punishment be immediately meted out, 1 the unbelievers which none can prevent. 2 From Allah, the Lord of all pinnacles. 3 To Him the angels and the Spirit mount up, in a day whereof the measure is fifty thousand years. 4 So be thou patient with a sweet patience; 5 They see it [the Day of Judgement] to be far off, 6 And We see it nigh. 7 The Day that the sky will be like the boiling filth of oil, (or molten copper or silver or lead, etc.). 8 And the mountains will be like wool, 9 And not a friend shall ask 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 his wife, his brother, 12 and his kinsfolk who had stood by him, 13 and whosoever is in the earth, all together, so that then it might deliver him. 14 By no means! for it would be the Fire of Hell!- 15 Flaying off the scalp-skin. 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 amasses (wealth) then shuts it up. 18 ۞ Surely man is greedy by nature. 19 when misfortune touches him he starts lamenting, 20 but when good comes upon him, he is grudging 21 Not so, however, those who consciously turn towards God in prayer. 22 Those who are constant in their prayer 23 and in whose possessions there is a due share, acknowledged [by them,] 24 for the needy and the deprived, 25 who confirm the Day of Doom 26 who are afraid of the torment of their Lord, 27 Indeed, the punishment of their Lord is not that from which one is safe - 28 and guard their private parts 29 save from their wives and what their right hands own, then not being blameworthy 30 But whoever seeks beyond that, then they are the transgressors - 31 And those who are to their trusts and promises attentive 32 And those who are upright in their testimonies, 33 and who take due care of their Prayer: 34 These it is who in the gardens [of paradise] shall be honoured! 35