The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
AN INQUIRER ASKED for the affliction that is to come 1 Upon the disbelievers, which none can avert, 2 a chastisement from Allah, the Lord of the ascending steps, 3 To whom the angels and the soul take a day to ascend, whose length is fifty thousand years. 4 (Muhammad), exercise patience with no complaints. 5 They deem it to be remote. 6 But We see it (quite) near. 7 Upon the day when heaven shall be as molten copper 8 And the hills become as flakes of wool, 9 no loyal friend shall question loyal friend, 10 (Though) they shall be made to see each other. The guilty one would fain redeem himself from the chastisement of that day by (sacrificing) his children, 11 His wife and his brother, 12 And the nearest of his kinsfolk who gave him shelter, 13 and all persons of the earth, if only he could thus save himself. 14 But never. It is pure white flame 15 will strip-off the flesh 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 amass [wealth] and thereupon withhold [it from their fellow-men]. 18 ۞ VERILY, man is born with a restless disposition. 19 If evil befalls him he is perturbed; 20 And when good touches him, withholding [of it], 21 Except the observers of prayer - 22 Those who are constant in their prayer 23 And in whose wealth there is a right acknowledged 24 for those that ask and those that are dispossessed, 25 And those who testify to the Day of Requital. 26 And those who are fearful of their Lord's doom - 27 Indeed the punishment of their Lord is not a thing to be unafraid of! 28 And those who protect their private organs (from adultery). 29 Are free of blame, 30 But whosoever seeks beyond that, they are the transgressors. 31 And those who keep their trusts and covenants; 32 and perform their witnessings, 33 And those who guard (the sacredness) of their worship;- 34 They will be honoured in the Gardens of Bliss. 35