| | Shabbir Ahmed rendition of Surah The Ascending Stairways, The Ladders(al-Ma`arij)
--- |
|---|
| 70:1 | | A questioner might ask about the catastrophe that is bound to fall |
| 70:2 | | Upon those who deny the Truth. None can repel it |
| 70:3 | | From Allah, Lord of the Stairways of Ascent. (He enables all things to ascend, evolve and become what they are destined to be) |
| 70:4 | | The Universal forces and the Divine Energy ascend unto Him in a Day the measure of which is fifty thousand years |
| 70:5 | | Therefore, you shall do your part with a most handsome steadfastness |
| 70:6 | | Behold, they see it far away |
| 70:7 | | But We see it near |
| 70:8 | | The Day when the sky will melt away |
| 70:9 | | And the mountains will become as flakes of wool |
| 70:10 | | And a friend will not ask about his friend |
| 70:11 | | Even though they will be within sight of one another. The guilty will desire to give his own children to ransom himself from suffering of the Day |
| 70:12 | | And his wife and his brother |
| 70:13 | | And his whole family and the tribe that raised and sheltered him |
| 70:14 | | And all who lived on earth - all of them if then it might save him |
| 70:15 | | But nay! Behold, it is a raging flame |
| 70:16 | | That burns all coverings and defenses |
| 70:17 | | It calls him who turned and fled from Truth |
| 70:18 | | And hoarded wealth, and withheld it |
| 70:19 | | Verily, man is created with an anxious disposition |
| 70:20 | | Nervous when harm touches him |
| 70:21 | | And niggardly when good reaches him |
| 70:22 | | Except the MUSALLEEN. (Who are Musalleen? NOT the so-called ritualistic praying ones) |
| 70:23 | | ----- MUSALLEEN are those who always follow the Divine System |
| 70:24 | | ----- And in whose wealth and possessions is a KNOWN RIGHT |
| 70:25 | | For him who asks for help, and for him who is deprived |
| 70:26 | | ----- (And Musalleen are) those who have conviction in the Day of Judgment. And hence, in the Law of Recompense |
| 70:27 | | ----- And those who are fearful of their Lord's Law of Requital |
| 70:28 | | ----- (They know that) Verily, their Lord's Law of Requital makes no exceptions, so that none can feel secure |
| 70:29 | | ----- Those men and women who preserve their chastity |
| 70:30 | | ----- They have intimate relations only with their spouses - that is, those who are rightfully theirs through wedlock. For such relationship they are free of blame. ('Aw' = Or = That is = And. (23:5-7)) |
| 70:31 | | But anyone who seeks beyond this, those are the transgressors |
| 70:32 | | ----- (And Musalleen are those) who guard their trusts and duties assigned to them, and their pledges, as a shepherd guards his flock |
| 70:33 | | ----- And those who are truthful in witness and stand by their testimony |
| 70:34 | | ----- And those who consolidate and protect the Divine System |
| 70:35 | | ----- (Musalleen are the ones who collectively build it on earth and) inherit the Paradise in the Hereafter. Such are the honored ones |
| 70:36 | | What, then, is the matter with the rejecters that they rush to and fro before you, confused? (Instead of joining hands) |
| 70:37 | | On the right and on the left, in groups |
| 70:38 | | Does everyone of them hope to enter the Garden of Bliss with this attitude |
| 70:39 | | Nay! Verily, they know full well what potentials We created them with |
| 70:40 | | But nay! I call to Witness the Lord of all points in the East and all points in the West, behold, We are Able |
| 70:41 | | To replace them by others better than they are. For, there is nothing to prevent Us |
| 70:42 | | Let them chat and play until they meet their Day which they are promised |
| 70:43 | | The Day they shall come forth in haste from their dead states, as if racing toward a goal post |
| 70:44 | | With their eyes subdued in shame, humiliation overwhelming them. Such is the Day which they were promised again and again |
