| | John Medows Rodwell rendition of Surah The Ascending Stairways, The Ladders(al-Ma`arij)
--- |
|---|
| 70:1 | | A SUITOR sued for punishment to light suddenl |
| 70:2 | | On the infidels: none can hinde |
| 70:3 | | God from inflicting it, the master of those ASCENTS |
| 70:4 | | By which the angels and the spirit ascend to him in a day, whose length is fifty thousand years |
| 70:5 | | Be thou patient therefore with becoming patience |
| 70:6 | | They forsooth regard that day as distant |
| 70:7 | | But we see it nigh |
| 70:8 | | The day when the heavens shall become as molten brass |
| 70:9 | | And the mountains shall become like flocks of wool |
| 70:10 | | And friend shall not question of friend |
| 70:11 | | Though they look at one another. Fain would the wicked redeem himself from punishment on that day at the price of his children |
| 70:12 | | Of his spouse and his brother |
| 70:13 | | And of his kindred who shewed affection for him |
| 70:14 | | And of all who are on the earth that then it might deliver him |
| 70:15 | | But no. For the fire |
| 70:16 | | Dragging by the scalp |
| 70:17 | | Shall claim him who turned his back and went away |
| 70:18 | | And amassed and hoarded |
| 70:19 | | Man truly is by creation hasty |
| 70:20 | | When evil befalleth him, impatient |
| 70:21 | | But when good falleth to his lot, tenacious |
| 70:22 | | Not so the prayerful |
| 70:23 | | Who are ever constant at their prayers |
| 70:24 | | And of whose substance there is a due and stated portio |
| 70:25 | | For him who asketh, and for him who is ashamed to beg |
| 70:26 | | And who own the judgment - day a truth |
| 70:27 | | And who thrill with dread at the chastisement of their Lord |
| 70:28 | | For there is none safe from the chastisement of their Lord |
| 70:29 | | And who control their desires |
| 70:30 | | (Save with their wives or the slaves whom their right hands have won, for there they shall be blameless |
| 70:31 | | But whoever indulge their desires beyond this are transgressors) |
| 70:32 | | And who are true to their trusts and their engagements |
| 70:33 | | And who witness uprightly |
| 70:34 | | And who keep strictly the hours of prayer |
| 70:35 | | These shall dwell, laden with honours, amid gardens |
| 70:36 | | But what hath come to the unbelievers that they run at full stretch around thee |
| 70:37 | | On the right hand and on the left, in bands |
| 70:38 | | Is it that every man of them would fain enter that garden of delights |
| 70:39 | | Not at all. We have created them, they know of what |
| 70:40 | | It needs not that I swear by the Lord of the East and of the West that we have power |
| 70:41 | | To replace them with better than themselves: neither are we to be hindered |
| 70:42 | | Wherefore let them flounder on and disport them, till they come face to face with their threatened day |
| 70:43 | | The day on which they shall flock up out of their graves in haste like men who rally to a standard: |
| 70:44 | | Their eyes downcast; disgrace shall cover them. Such their threatened day |
