The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
One demanding, demanded the chastisement which must befall 1 The Unbelievers, the which there is none to ward off,- 2 a chastisement from Allah, the Lord of the ascending steps, 3 Whereby the angels ascend unto Him and also the spirit, On a Day whereof the measure is fifty thousand years. 4 So persevere with becoming patience. 5 Lo! they behold it afar off 6 but, We see it as near! 7 The day the sky becomes like molten brass, 8 And the mountains will be like flakes of wool, 9 and no bosom friend will enquire about any of his bosom friends 10 Though within sight of one another. The sinner would like to ransom himself from the torment of that Day by offering his sons, 11 And his wife and his brother 12 And his family who had stood by him, 13 And all those who are on the earth, to save himself. 14 By no means! for it would be the Fire of Hell!- 15 that will strip off the scalp. 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 collected [wealth] and hoarded. 18 ۞ Surely man is greedy by nature. 19 When evil comes upon him he is impatient; 20 but when good comes upon him, he is grudging 21 But not so the worshippers 22 Those who are regular in their prayers. 23 And those in whose wealth there is a fixed portion. 24 For the petitioner and the deprived - 25 who confirm the Day of Doom 26 And those who fear the punishment of their Lord. 27 Indeed, the punishment of their Lord is not that from which one is safe - 28 and those who guard their private parts, 29 except from their wives and what their right hands own, for these they are not blameworthy. 30 And whosoever seeketh beyond that, then it is those who are the trespassers 31 and who preserve their trusts and their covenant, 32 And those who stand firm in their testimonies. 33 and who observe their prayers. 34 Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss). 35