al-Ma`arij (The Ascending Stairways, The Ladders) at IslamAwakened.com

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