The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
ONE who is minded to ask might ask about the suffering which [in the hereafter] is bound to befall 1 To the disbelievers; of it there is no preventer. 2 (A Penalty) from Allah, Lord of the Ways of Ascent. 3 (Whereby) the angels and the Spirit ascend unto Him in a Day whereof the span is fifty thousand years. 4 So be thou patient with a sweet patience; 5 They see the (Day) indeed as a far-off (event): 6 while We think that it is near at hand. 7 On that Day the heavens shall become like molten brass, 8 and the mountains will be like tufts of wool, 9 And no friend will ask after a friend, 10 though they shall be within sight of each other. The guilty one will gladly ransom himself from the torment of that Day by sacrificing his own children, 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 No, in truth, it is a Furnace! 15 that will strip off the scalp. 16 and it will claim all those who turned their backs [on the true faith] and turned away [from the truth], 17 And amasses (wealth) then shuts it up. 18 ۞ Indeed, man is born impatient: 19 Fretful when evil touches him; 20 when good visits him, grudging, 21 Except those who establish prayer. 22 and are constant in their Prayer; 23 And in whose wealth there is a right acknowledged 24 for the impoverished nonrequester and the requester, 25 And those who believe the Day of Judgement to be true. 26 and who stand in dread of their Sustainer's chastisement 27 Indeed, the punishment of their Lord is not that from which one is safe - 28 And those who guard their sex except from their wives and women slaves of old 29 Except with their wives and the (captives) whom their right hands possess,- for (then) they are not to be blamed, 30 But those who trespass beyond this are transgressors;- 31 And those who keep their trusts and covenants; 32 who testify to what they have witnessed, 33 And those who protect their prayers. 34 Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss). 35