The Ascending Stairways · Surah 70

A questioner questioned concerning the doom about to fall

Upon the disbelievers, which none can repel

From Allah, Lord of the Ascending Stairways

(Whereby) the angels and the Spirit ascend unto Him in a Day whereof the span is fifty thousand years

But be patient (O Muhammad) with a patience fair to see

Lo! they behold it afar off

While we behold it nigh

The day when the sky will become as molten copper

And the hills become as flakes of wool

And no familiar friend will ask a question of his friend

Though they will be given sight of them. The guilty man will long to be able to ransom himself from the punishment of that day at the price of his children

And his spouse and his brother

And his kin that harboured him

And all that are in the earth, if then it might deliver him

But nay! for lo! it is the fire of hell

Eager to roast

It calleth him who turned and fled (from truth)

And hoarded (wealth) and withheld it

Lo! man was created anxious

Fretful when evil befalleth him

And, when good befalleth him, grudging

Save worshippers

Who are constant at their worship

And in whose wealth there is a right acknowledged

For the beggar and the destitute

And those who believe in the Day of Judgment

And those who are fearful of their Lord's doom

Lo! the doom of their Lord is that before which none can feel secure

And those who preserve their chastity

Save with their wives and those whom their right hands possess, for thus they are not blameworthy

But whoso seeketh more than that, those are they who are transgressors

And those who keep their pledges and their covenant

And those who stand by their testimony

And those who are attentive at their worship

These will dwell in Gardens, honoured

What aileth those who disbelieve, that they keep staring toward thee (O Muhammad), open-eyed

On the right and on the left, in groups

Doth every man among them hope to enter the Garden of Delight

Nay, verily. Lo! We created them from what they know

But nay! I swear by the Lord of the rising-places and the setting-places of the planets that We verily are Able

To replace them by (others) better than them. And we are not to be outrun

So let them chat and play until they meet their Day which they are promised

The day when they come forth from the graves in haste, as racing to a goal

With eyes aghast, abasement stupefying them: Such is the Day which they are promised