The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
A doubter once demanded that punishment be immediately meted out, 1 for the unbelievers, which none may avert, 2 a chastisement from Allah, the Lord of the ascending steps, 3 The angels and the Spirit will ascend to Him during a Day the extent of which is fifty thousand years. 4 So be patient with gracious patience. 5 They surely take it to be far away, 6 While we behold it nigh: 7 The Day that the sky will be like molten brass, 8 and the mountains will become like tufts of wool, 9 And friend shall not ask of 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 And his family who had stood by him, 13 And all those that are in the earth, (wishing) then (that) this might deliver him. 14 By no means! Verily it is a Flame. 15 snatching away the scalp, 16 It shall insistently summon him who turned his back and retreated, 17 And amasses (wealth) then shuts it up. 18 ۞ Verily man is impatient by nature: 19 When evil toucheth him, he is bewailing. 20 but when they are fortunate, they become niggardly 21 Not so are the prayerful. 22 and constant in their prayers. 23 And those in whose wealth there is a known right, 24 For the (needy) who asks and him who is prevented (for some reason from asking); 25 who confirm the Day of Doom 26 and fear the chastisement 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 Except with their wives and the (captives) whom their right hands possess,- for (then) they are not to be blamed, 30 But those who seek more than this will be transgressors; 31 and those who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges; 32 And those who are firm upon their testimonies. 33 and who take due care of their Prayer: 34 Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss). 35