70:1  An asker asked for a punishment sure to befall

70:2  —which none can avert from the faithless —

70:3  from Allah, Lord of the lofty stations.

70:4  The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day whose span is fifty thousand years.

70:5  So be patient, with a patience that is graceful.

70:6  Indeed they see it to be far off,

70:7  and We see it to be near.

70:8  The day when the sky will be like molten copper,

70:9  and the mountains like [tufts of] dyed wool,

70:10  and no friend will inquire about [the welfare of his] friend,

70:11  [though] they will be placed within each other’s sight. The guilty one will wish he could ransom himself from the punishment of that day at the price of his children,

70:12  his spouse and his brother,

70:13  his kin, which had sheltered him

70:14  and all those who are upon the earth, if that might deliver him.

70:15  Never! Indeed, it is a blazing fire,

70:16  which strips away the scalp.

70:17  It invites him, who has turned back [from the truth] and forsaken [it],

70:18  amassing [wealth] and hoarding [it].

70:19  Indeed man has been created covetous:

70:20  anxious when an ill befalls him

70:21  and grudging [charity] when good comes his way

70:22  —[all are such] except the prayerful,

70:23  those who persevere in their prayers

70:24  and there is a known share in whose wealth

70:25  for the beggar and the deprived,

70:26  and who affirm the Day of Retribution,

70:27  and those who are apprehensive of the punishment of their Lord

70:28  (there is indeed no security from the punishment of their Lord)

70:29  and those who guard their private parts

70:30  (apart from their spouses and their slave women, for then they are not blameworthy;

70:31  but whoever seeks beyond that—it is they who are the transgressors)

70:32  and those who keep their trusts and covenants,

70:33  and those who are observant of their testimonies,

70:34  and those who are watchful of their prayers.

70:35  They will be in gardens, held in honour.

70:36  What is the matter with the faithless that they scramble toward you,

70:37  from left and right, in groups?

70:38  Does each man among them hope to enter the garden of bliss?

70:39  Never! Indeed, We created them from what they know.

70:40  So I swear by the Lord of the easts and the wests that We are able

70:41  to replace them with [others] better than them and We are not to be outmaneuvered.

70:42  So leave them to gossip and play till they encounter the day they are promised:

70:43  the day when they emerge from graves, hastening, as if racing toward a target,

70:44  with a humbled look [in their eyes], overcast by abasement. That is the day they had been promised.