Al-Ma'arij

A petitioner petitioned, a supplicator supplicated [for], an impending chastisement

— which in the case of the disbelievers none can avert: this was al-Nadr b. al-Hārith who said, ‘O God, if this be indeed the truth from You … [then rain down upon us stones from the heaven’ [Q. 8:32],

from God (mina’Llāhi is semantically connected to wāqi‘in, ‘impending’), Lord of the Ascensions, the ascension routes of the angels, which are the heavens.

To Him, to the place in the heaven to which His command descends, ascend (read [feminine person] ta‘ruju or [masculine person] ya‘ruju) the angels and the Spirit, Gabriel, in a day (fī yawmin is semantically connected to an omitted clause, that is to say, ‘[in a day] in which the chastisement befalls them’, on the Day of Resurrection) whose span is fifty thousand years, from the perspective of the disbeliever, on account of the calamities he will encounter in it — but as for the believer, it [the mentioned day] will be easier for him than an obligatory prayer which he performs in this world, as stated in hadīth.

So be patient — this was [revealed] before he [the Prophet] was commanded to fight — with a graceful patience, that is, one in which there is no anguish.

Lo! they see it, that is, the chastisement, as [being] far off, as never taking place;

while We see it [to be] near, taking place without a doubt.

The day when the heaven will be (yawma takūnu’l-samā’u is semantically connected to an omitted clause, implicitly taken to be yaqa‘u, ‘it will take place’) as molten silver,

and the mountains will be as flakes of wool, in terms of [their] lightness and [their] floating about in the wind.

And no friend will inquire about his friend, [no] relative [will inquire] about his relative, each being preoccupied with his own predicament.

They will [however] be made to see them, that is, friends will catch sight of one another, recognising one another but refraining from speaking [to one another] (the sentence [yubassarūnahum] is a new [independent] one). The guilty one will desire, the disbeliever will yearn, to ransom himself from the chastisement of that day (read [min ‘adhābi] yawmi’dhin or [min ‘adhābin] yawma’idhin) at the price of his children,

and his companion, his wife, and his brother,

and his kin, his clan ([expressed as fasīla] because he is a [detached] part [fasl] of it) that had sheltered him, embraced him,

and all who are on earth, if it, that ransom, might then deliver him (thumma yunjīhi is a supplement to yaftadī, ‘to ransom himself’).

Nay! — a refutation of his wish. Lo! [for him] it, namely, the Fire, will be the Churning Fire (lazā) — a name for Hell, [so called] because it churns its flames [tatalazzā] against the disbelievers,

ripping out the scalp (shawā is the plural of shawāt, the skin of the head);

it will call him who turned his back and ignored, faith, saying [to him]: ‘To me ! to me [come hither]!’,

and amassed, wealth, then hoarded, keeping it in containers and refraining from paying from it what is God’s due.

Indeed man was created restless: (halū‘an is an implied circumstantial qualifier, the explanation of which [follows]):

when evil befalls him, [he is] anxious, at the point of that evil befalling [him],

and when good befalls him, [he is] grudging, at the point of that good befalling [him], that is to say, [when] wealth [befalls him], [he is grudging to give] of it what is due to God;

except those who perform prayers, that is, the believers,

those who maintain, [those who] regularly observe, their prayers,

and in whose wealth there is an acknowledged due, namely, alms,

for the beggar and the deprived, the [latter being the] one who refrains from begging and thus becomes deprived,

and who affirm the truth of the Day of Judgement, [of] Requital,

and who are apprehensive of the chastisement of their Lord —

lo! there is no security from the chastisement of their Lord, [from] its being sent down —

and those who guard their private parts,

except from their wives and those whom their right hands own, in the way of slavegirls, for in that case they are not blameworthy;

but whoever seeks beyond that, those are the infringers, who transgress [the bounds of] what is lawful [stepping] into what is unlawful;

and those who are keepers, [faithful] guardians, of their trusts (amānātihim: a variant reading has the singular [amānatihim]), that to which they are entrusted of religion and the affairs of this world, and their covenant, the one taken from them regarding such things,

and who are forthwith with their testimony (bi-shahādatihim: a variant reading has the plural [bi-shahādātihim, ‘their testimonies’]), [those who] offer them and do not withhold them,

and who preserve their prayers, by observing them in their appointed times.

Those will be in Gardens, honoured.

So what is wrong with those who disbelieve that they keep staring towards you (muhti‘īna is a circumstantial qualifier),

to the right and to the left, of you, in droves? (‘izīna is also a circumstantial qualifier), in other words, in groups standing in circles, one next to the other, saying, in mockery of the believers, ‘Verily if [the likes of] these are to enter Paradise, we shall enter it before them’. God, exalted be He, says:

Does each one of them hope to be admitted into a Garden of Bliss?

Nay! — meant to thwart their hopes of [entering] Paradise. Indeed We created them, as others, from what they know, from drops of sperm, and so one cannot hope for Paradise [merely] on account of this: one hopes for it by being God-fearing.

For verily (fa-lā: lā is extra) I swear by the Lord of the rising-places and the setting-places, of the sun, the moon and all the stars, that We are able

to replace [them], to bring in their place, with [others] better than them, and We are not to be outmanoeuvred, [We will not be] frustrated in this.

So leave them to indulge, in their falsehoods, and to play, in this world of theirs, until they encounter that day of theirs, in, which they are promised, chastisement;

the day when they will come forth from the graves hastening, to the site of the Gathering, as if racing to a [standing] target (nasbin: a variant reading has nusubin, meaning something that has been erected [mansūb], such as a flag or a banner),

with their eyes humbled, abject, overcast by abasement, shrouded in it. Such is the day which they are promised (dhālika is the subject and what follows it is the predicate), meaning: the Day of Resurrection.