| qxp | |
|---|---|
| 1. * | A questioner might ask about the catastrophe that is bound to fall. |
| 2. * | Upon those who deny the Truth. None can repel it. |
| 3. * | From Allah, Lord of the Stairways of Ascent. (He enables all things to ascend, evolve and become what they are destined to be). |
| 4. * | The Universal forces and the Divine Energy ascend unto Him in a Day the measure of which is fifty thousand years. |
| 5. * | Therefore, you shall do your part with a most handsome steadfastness. |
| 6. * | Behold, they see it far away. |
| 7. * | But We see it near. |
| 8. * | The Day when the sky will melt away. |
| 9. * | And the mountains will become as flakes of wool. |
| 10. * | And a friend will not ask about his friend. |
| 11. * | Even though they will be within sight of one another. The guilty will desire to give his own children to ransom himself from suffering of the Day. |
| 12. * | And his wife and his brother. |
| 13. * | And his whole family and the tribe that raised and sheltered him. |
| 14. * | And all who lived on earth - all of them if then it might save him. |
| 15. * | But nay! Behold, it is a raging flame. |
| 16. * | That burns all coverings and defenses. |
| 17. * | It calls him who turned and fled from Truth. |
| 18. * | And hoarded wealth, and withheld it. |
| 19. * | Verily, man is created with an anxious disposition. |
| 20. * | Nervous when harm touches him. |
| 21. * | And niggardly when good reaches him. |
| 22. * | Except the MUSALLEEN. (Who are Musalleen? NOT the so-called ritualistic praying ones). |
| 23. * | ----- MUSALLEEN are those who always follow the Divine System. |
| 24. * | ----- And in whose wealth and possessions is a KNOWN RIGHT. |
| 25. * | For him who asks for help, and for him who is deprived. |
| 26. * | ----- (And Musalleen are) those who have conviction in the Day of Judgment. And hence, in the Law of Recompense. |
| 27. * | ----- And those who are fearful of their Lord's Law of Requital. |
| 28. * | ----- (They know that) Verily, their Lord's Law of Requital makes no exceptions, so that none can feel secure. |
| 29. * | ----- Those men and women who preserve their chastity. |
| 30. * | ----- They have intimate relations only with their spouses - that is, those who are rightfully theirs through wedlock. For such relationship they are free of blame. ('Aw' = Or = That is = And. (23:5-7)). |
| 31. * | But anyone who seeks beyond this, those are the transgressors. |
| 32. * | ----- (And Musalleen are those) who guard their trusts and duties assigned to them, and their pledges, as a shepherd guards his flock. |
| 33. * | ----- And those who are truthful in witness and stand by their testimony. |
| 34. * | ----- And those who consolidate and protect the Divine System. |
| 35. * | ----- (Musalleen are the ones who collectively build it on earth and) inherit the Paradise in the Hereafter. Such are the honored ones. |
| 36. * | What, then, is the matter with the rejecters that they rush to and fro before you, confused? (Instead of joining hands). |
| 37. * | On the right and on the left, in groups! |
| 38. * | Does everyone of them hope to enter the Garden of Bliss with this attitude? |
| 39. * | Nay! Verily, they know full well what potentials We created them with. |
| 40. * | But nay! I call to Witness the Lord of all points in the East and all points in the West, behold, We are Able - |
| 41. * | To replace them by others better than they are. For, there is nothing to prevent Us. |
| 42. * | Let them chat and play until they meet their Day which they are promised. |
| 43. * | The Day they shall come forth in haste from their dead states, as if racing toward a goal post. |
| 44. * | With their eyes subdued in shame, humiliation overwhelming them. Such is the Day which they were promised again and again. |