The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
A supplicant asked for a punishment bound to happen 1 The unbelievers-- there is none to avert it-- 2 From Allah, Owner of the ascending steps. 3 To Him the angels and the Spirit mount up, in a day whereof the measure is fifty thousand years. 4 Therefore, [O believers] behave with seemly patience. 5 they see it as being far off; 6 but We see it to be very near. 7 The day the sky becomes like molten brass, 8 The mountains like the tufts of (carded) wool, 9 even intimate friends will not inquire about their friends, 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 And his wife and his brother 12 And his kin that sheltered him. 13 And all that are in the earth, so that it might save him. 14 But no! There is a raging blaze 15 tearing away his skin! 16 It will summon whoever turns his back and flees, 17 who amassed and hoarded. 18 ۞ Human beings are created greedy. 19 [As a rule,] whenever misfortune touches him, he is filled with self-pity; 20 And when good touches him, withholding [of it], 21 But not so the worshippers 22 Who persevere in devotion, 23 And those within whose wealth is a known right 24 For the beggar and the destitute. 25 And those who accept the truth of the judgment day 26 And those who are fearful of the chastisement of their Lord-- 27 for none is secure from the punishment of their Lord, 28 And those who preserve their chastity 29 except from their wives and what their right hands own, for these they are not blameworthy. 30 but any who seeks to go beyond that, it is indeed they who are the transgressors, 31 and those who fulfil their trusts and their covenants, 32 and standby their witnessing, 33 And those who are attentive at their worship. 34 Those shall be in Gardens, high-honoured. 35