The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
There hath asked an asker for the torment about to befall. 1 Upon the disbelievers – the punishment that none can avert. 2 [It is] from Allah, owner of the ways of ascent. 3 To Him the angels and the Spirit mount up, in a day whereof the measure is fifty thousand years. 4 Therefore, [O believer,] endure all adversity with goodly patience: 5 behold, they see it as if far off; 6 And We behold 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 become like tufts of wool, 9 and no friend will ask about his friend, 10 (Though) they shall be made to see each other. The guilty one would fain redeem himself from the chastisement of that day by (sacrificing) his children, 11 his companion wife, his brother, 12 and his kinsfolk who gave him shelter, 13 and all the people of the earth, if that could deliver him. 14 No, in truth, it is a Furnace! 15 Plucking out (his being) right to the skull!- 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 who amassed and hoarded. 18 ۞ Lo! man was created anxious, 19 when evil visits him, impatient, 20 And, when good befalleth him, grudging; 21 Except those who establish prayer. 22 Who persevere in devotion, 23 who, from their wealth is a known right 24 for such as ask [for help] and such as are deprived [of what is good in life]; 25 And those who believe in the Day of Judgement, 26 And those who fear the displeasure of their Lord,- 27 Verily! The torment of their Lord is that before which none can feel secure, 28 And those who of their private parts are guards. 29 Except from their wives or those their right hands possess, for indeed, they are not to be blamed - 30 but those who go beyond that limit are transgressors; 31 and who preserve their trusts and their covenant, 32 And those who stand by their testimony 33 And those who keep a guard on their prayer, 34 Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss). 35