The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
A requester seeks the punishment that will take place – 1 the unbelievers which none can prevent. 2 from God, the Lord of the Stairways. 3 To Him the angels and the Spirit (Gabriel) ascend in a day, the measure of which is fifty thousand years. 4 Therefore, [O believer,] endure all adversity with goodly patience: 5 behold, men look upon that [reckoning] as something far away 6 But We see it very near. 7 On the day when the heavens become like molten metal. 8 And the mountains will be like flakes of wool, 9 And no familiar friend will ask a question of his friend 10 although they shall be within sight of one another. The guilty one would fain ransom himself from the torment of that Day by offering his children, 11 And his wife and his brother 12 And his kin that harboured him 13 and whosoever is in the earth, all together, so that then it might deliver him. 14 By no means! It will be the fierce flame 15 Dragging by the head, 16 It invites he who turned his back [on truth] and went away [from obedience] 17 And collected [wealth] and hoarded. 18 ۞ Indeed man is created very impatient, greedy. 19 [As a rule,] whenever misfortune touches him, he is filled with self-pity; 20 If good comes to him he holds back his hand, 21 Except those who establish prayer. 22 who are constant in prayer; 23 And those within whose wealth is a known right 24 for the needy and the deprived, 25 And those who hold to the truth of the Day of Judgment; 26 and fear the chastisement of their Lord – 27 Lo! the doom of their Lord is that before which none can feel secure - 28 and guard their private parts 29 except from their wives and slave girls, in which case they are not to be blamed, 30 So those who desire more than this – it is they who are the transgressors. 31 And those who keep their pledges and their covenant, 32 And those who are upright in their testimonies, 33 And those who protect their prayers. 34 These it is who in the gardens [of paradise] shall be honoured! 35