Sūrah al-Ma‘ārij

A person in haste has hastily asked to hasten the punishment that is bound to befall these disbelievers: no one will be able to avert it. It will come from God Who has ascending stairways. [They measure everything from their own scales and then make haste. Tell them that] the angels and the Spirit ascend towards Him in a day the measure of which [according to your calculation] is fifty thousand years. So, [O Prophet!] with grace and dignity bear [what they say] with patience. They hold it far off, but We see it near at hand.

[They will also see it: here and after that in the Hereafter too.]

The day when the sky becomes like the sediment of oil and the mountains will be like tufts of carded wool, and no sincere friend at that time shall inquire after a friend even though they shall be shown to one another. The wrongdoer will long to redeem himself from the torment of that day by offering as ransom his sons, his wife, his brother, his family who used to give him shelter and all the people on the face of the earth; then save himself [from it].

By no means! It is the flame of fire which strips open the skin, calling every person who turned his back and drew away and amassed riches and hoarded them.

[These people shall continue asking you to hasten the punishment. Just ignore them.] In reality, man has been created very impatient. Whenever some affliction befalls him, he becomes impatient, and when good fortune befalls him, he becomes very stingy. But not those who pray, who are always vigilant in the prayer, who have a fixed portion in their wealth for those who ask and for the deprived, who truly believe in the Day of Reckoning and keep dreading the punishment of their Lord – because the punishment of their Lord is not something to be careless of – who preserve their chastity – except with their wives and slave-girls, for in their matter they are not blameworthy. But those who seek to go beyond this, then it is they who are transgressors – who keep their trusts and promises [both with regard to God and with regard to their fellow human beings,] who stand firm in their testimonies and who guard their prayers. It is they who will be in gardens [of Paradise] with great honour.

Then what is the matter that [as soon as they hear this decision of Ours] these disbelievers are rushing madly at you in multitudes from right and left? Does each one among them covet to enter the garden of bliss [just because he possesses a high status in this world]? By no means! [They should not show conceit on their status.] We have created them out of what they know.

[They think that We shall not be able to create them a second time.] Then, by no means! I swear by Him Who is the Master of all the vastness of the East and the West that We are capable of creating them in a better form after changing them, and We shall not be powerless in this. Therefore, [if they do not understand this,] leave them to chitchat and play about until they encounter that day of theirs about which they are being threatened with. The day on which they will rush out from their graves as if running towards targets marked for racing. Their eyes will be downcast; disgrace will cover them. This is the day about which they used to be warned of.