The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
A beseecher besought the visitation of chastisement, 1 The Unbelievers, the which there is none to ward off,- 2 (A punishment) from Allah, the Owner of the Elevated Passages. 3 The angels and the spirit ascend unto him in a Day the measure whereof is (as) fifty thousand years: 4 Therefore, [O believers] behave with seemly patience. 5 Verily they think that the chastisement is far off, 6 But We see it very near. 7 It shall befall on a Day whereon the sky will become like molten brass, 8 And the mountains will be like flakes of wool, 9 And no familiar friend will ask a question of his 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 kindred who sheltered him, 13 And all that are in the earth, if then it might deliver him. 14 But no! There is a raging blaze 15 It snatches away by the scalps, 16 and it shall call him who withdrew and turned his back 17 and who accumulated wealth without spending it for a good purpose. 18 ۞ Indeed, mankind was created anxious: 19 Fretful when evil touches him; 20 and whenever good fortune comes to him, he grows niggardly. 21 Except the observers of prayer - 22 Who persevere in devotion, 23 and in whose possessions there is a due share, acknowledged [by them,] 24 for such as ask [for help] and such as are deprived [of what is good in life]; 25 and who accept as true the [coming of the] Day of Judgment; 26 and who stand in dread of their Sustainer's chastisement 27 For their Lord's displeasure is the opposite of Peace and Tranquillity;- 28 And those who guard their private parts 29 Except with their wives and the (women slaves and captives) whom their right hands possess, for (then) they are not to be blamed, 30 But whoso seeketh more than that, those are they who are transgressors; 31 And those who keep their pledges and their covenant, 32 And those who stand firm in their testimonies; 33 And those who are mindful of their moral obligations. 34 Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss). 35