The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
A supplicant asked for a punishment bound to happen 1 The infidels, of which there is no averter. 2 from punishing them. He is the Lord of the Ascending Stairways, 3 by which the angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in one Day the duration of which is fifty thousand years. 4 So persevere with becoming patience. 5 They surely take it to be far away, 6 But We see it (quite) near. 7 The Day that the sky will be like the boiling filth of oil, (or molten copper or silver or lead, etc.). 8 The mountains like the tufts of (carded) wool, 9 and no bosom friend will enquire about any of his bosom friends 10 Though they shall be made to see one another [(i.e. on the Day of Resurrection), there will be none but see his father, children and relatives, but he will neither speak to them nor will ask them for any help)], - the Mujrim, (criminal, sinner, disbeliever, etc.) would desire to ransom himself from the punishment of that Day by his children. 11 And his wife and his brother, 12 his kinsmen who gave him refuge (from hardship) 13 And all, all that is on earth,- so it could deliver him: 14 By no means! Verily it is a Flame. 15 It snatches away by the scalps, 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 who accumulated wealth without spending it for a good purpose. 18 ۞ Human beings are created greedy. 19 When they are afflicted, they complain, 20 And niggardly when good touches him; 21 except those that pray 22 and are constant in their Prayer; 23 And those in whose wealth exists a recognised right, 24 For the (needy) who asks and him who is prevented (for some reason from asking); 25 And those who testify to the Day of Requital. 26 and are fearful of the punishment of their Lord; 27 For their Lord's displeasure is the opposite of Peace and Tranquillity;- 28 And those who guard their private parts 29 Except from their wives or those their right hands possess, for indeed, they are not to be blamed - 30 But whosoever seeks beyond that, then it is those who are trespassers. 31 And those who keep their pledges and their covenant, 32 who testify to what they have witnessed, 33 And those who guard (the sacredness) of their worship;- 34 These will dwell in Gardens, honoured. 35