Sūrah Al-MaʿārijThe Ascending Stairways · Makkah · 44 āyāt · 3 themes

The tafsīr in brief

A questioner asked about a punishment about to occur, for the disbelievers, which none can avert — from Allah, Lord of the ascending stairways, to Whom the angels and the Spirit ascend in a Day the extent of which is fifty thousand years. So be patient with gracious patience; indeed they see it as far off, but We see it as near. On that Day the sky will be like molten copper and the mountains like wool, and no close friend will ask about another though he can see him — the criminal wishing to ransom himself with his children, spouse, brother, kinsmen and all mankind, if that would save him. But no — it is the Flame, calling out for the one who turned away and hoarded.

• Receive warnings with humility rather than demanding proof through punishment. The Day belongs to Allah's authority, not to the timetable of those who challenge it.
• Practise gracious patience without treating accountability as a distant concern. Patience and readiness belong together.
• Do not let familiar surroundings or strong family connections create false security. Take responsibility for your response to Allah rather than expecting others to rescue you.
• Let the warning change present choices: turn toward truth and obedience, and do not make gathering and hoarding wealth your purpose.

The tafsīr in brief

Indeed man was created anxious: when harm touches him, distressed, and when good touches him, withholding — except those who pray, maintaining their prayer constantly, and in whose wealth there is a known right for the beggar and the deprived, and who believe in the Day of Judgement and fear their Lord's punishment, guard their private parts, keep their trusts and covenants, are upright in their testimony, and are attentive to their prayer. Those will be in Gardens, honoured.

• Notice how both difficulty and comfort test your character. Rather than treating impatience or stinginess as unchangeable, build a steady life of prayer.
• Make room for people in need within your use of wealth. Let belief in accountability encourage generosity without letting good deeds make you feel beyond the warning.
• Practise restraint by respecting the stated boundaries of intimacy, rather than treating desire itself as permission.
• Treat promises, entrusted responsibilities and testimony as part of your religious character. Reliability belongs to the portrait of those promised honour in gardens.

The tafsīr in brief

What is with those who disbelieve, hastening to stare at you from right and left in scattered groups? Does every one of them hope to enter a garden of pleasure? No — indeed We have created them from what they know. So swear by the Lord of the sunrises and sunsets, We are able to replace them with better than them, and We are not to be outrun. So leave them to converse vainly and play until they meet their Day which they are promised — the Day they will emerge from the graves swiftly as if racing to a goal, eyes humbled, overcome by humiliation; that is the Day they were promised.

• Do not confuse being near religious guidance with accepting it. Meet reminders with humility, rather than joining others in dismissing them or assuming Paradise is owed to you.
• Let Allah’s control over creation check any sense of being indispensable. His purposes do not depend on those who refuse His guidance.
• When faith is mocked, remain composed without giving up the call to what is true. You do not need to answer every taunt with an argument.
• Take the promised Day seriously now. Its picture of haste and humiliation invites preparation rather than treating accountability as a distant concern.