| | T.B.Irving rendition of Surah The Ascending Stairways, The Ladders(al-Ma`arij)
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| 70:1 | | A skeptic was asking about torment that is bound to happen |
| 70:2 | | to disbelievers; there will be no defense against it |
| 70:3 | | [since it comes] from God Who owns the staircases leading upward. |
| 70:4 | | The angels and the Spirit will climb up to Him on a day whose range is fifty thousand years |
| 70:5 | | So act patient with a handsome patience! |
| 70:6 | | They consider it is far away |
| 70:7 | | while We see it as nearby |
| 70:8 | | on a day when the sky will be like molten brass |
| 70:9 | | and the mountains like tufts of yarn. |
| 70:10 | | No close friend will question any [other] friend; |
| 70:11 | | they will merely give each other a knowing look. A criminal might like to ransom himself from that day´s torment through his children, |
| 70:12 | | his wife, a brother of his, |
| 70:13 | | his family circle which has sheltered him, |
| 70:14 | | and everyone who is on earth if [such action] might then save him. |
| 70:15 | | Of course not; it would flare up |
| 70:16 | | tugging at his scalp, |
| 70:17 | | claiming anyone who tries to escape and turns away, |
| 70:18 | | through saving (things) up and hoarding (them). |
| 70:19 | | Man has been created restless, |
| 70:20 | | so he panics whenever any evil touches him, |
| 70:21 | | and withdraws when some good touches him; |
| 70:22 | | except for the prayerful |
| 70:23 | | who are constant at their prayers |
| 70:24 | | and whose wealth comprises an acknowledged responsibility |
| 70:25 | | towards the beggar and the destitute; |
| 70:26 | | and the ones who accept the Day for Repayment, |
| 70:27 | | and those who are apprehensive about their Lord´s torment- |
| 70:28 | | (their Lord´s torment is nothing to feel too safe from!)- |
| 70:29 | | and the ones who preserve their chastity, |
| 70:30 | | except with their own spouses or those living under their control; with such they are blameless. |
| 70:31 | | Those who desire [to go] beyond that, will be going too far___ |
| 70:32 | | and the ones who preserve their trusts and oaths, |
| 70:33 | | and the ones who stand by their testimony, |
| 70:34 | | and the ones who attend to their prayer- |
| 70:35 | | those will be honored in gardens. |
| 70:36 | | Yet what is wrong with those who disbelieve, that they should try to dash on ahead of you |
| 70:37 | | in batches to the right and on the left? |
| 70:38 | | Does every man among them aspire to enter the Garden of Bliss? |
| 70:39 | | Of course not! We created them out of something they well know. |
| 70:40 | | And I do swear by the Lord of the Eastern places and the Western places that We are Able |
| 70:41 | | to replace them with someone better than they are. We shall never be overruled! |
| 70:42 | | Leave them speculating and playing around until they face their day which they have been promised, |
| 70:43 | | the day when they will hasten forth from their graves as if they were rushing towards some objective, |
| 70:44 | | their eyesight cast down, disgrace overshadowing them on that day which they have been threatened with! |
