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