The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
A questioner asked of a chastisement about to fall 1 Upon the disbelievers, which none can avert, 2 (A punishment) from Allah, the Owner of the Elevated Passages. 3 To whom the angels and the soul take a day to ascend, whose length is fifty thousand years. 4 Therefore endure with a goodly patience. 5 Verily they think that the chastisement is far off, 6 But We see it (quite) near. 7 Upon the day when heaven shall be as molten copper 8 and the mountains shall be like puffs of wool. 9 and [when] no friend will ask about his friend, 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 the kinsmen who gave him shelter, 13 and all the people of the earth, if that could deliver him. 14 By no means! It will be the fierce flame 15 That would skin 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 amassed wealth and covetously hoarded it. 18 ۞ Indeed man is created very impatient, greedy. 19 Fretful when evil befalleth him 20 And niggardly when good touches him; 21 except those that pray, 22 who are constant in prayer; 23 and those in whose wealth there is a known right 24 for the beggar and the outcast, 25 And those who believe in the Day of Recompense, 26 And those who are fearful of the punishment of their Lord - 27 (from their Lord's chastisement none feels secure) 28 And those who guard their private parts 29 Save in regard to their spouses or those whom their right hands own; so verily they are not blameworthy 30 And whosoever seeketh beyond that, then it is those who are the trespassers 31 and those who fulfil their trusts and their covenants, 32 who testify to what they have witnessed, 33 And those who protect their prayers. 34 Those are highly honored in the Gardens. 35