The Ascending Stairways

From Allah, Lord of the Ascending Stairways

A questioner questioned concerning the doom about to fall

Upon the disbelievers, which none can repel,

(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.