The Quran
The JM Rodwell Translation
With text notes
I

Truthnet
Truthnet:Islam

Introduction
Index
Surah's

1 I
2 The Cow
3 Family of Imran
4 Women
5 The Table
6 Cattle
7 Al Araf
8 The Spoils
9 Immunity
10 Jonah, PUBH
11 Houd
12 Joseph, PUBH
13 Thunder
14 Abraham, PUBH
15 Hedjr
16 The Bee
17 The Night Journey
18 The Cave
19 Mary
20 TA. HA
21 The Prophets
22 The Pilgrimage
23 The Believers
24 Light
25 Al Furkan
26 The Poets
27 The Ant
28 The Story
29 The Spider
30 The Greeks
31 Lokman
32 Adoration
33 The Confederates
34 Saba
35 The Creator
36 YA. SIN.
37 The Ranks
38 SAD
39 The Troops
40 The Believer
41 The Made Plain
42 Counsel
43 Ornaments of Gold
44 Smoke
45 The Kneeling
46 Al Ahkaf
47 Muhammed
48 The Victory
49 The Apartments
50 Kaf
51 The Scattering
52 The Mountain
53 The Star
54 The Moon
55 The Merciful
56 The Event
57 Iron
58 She Who Pleaded
59 The Emigration
60 She Who is Tried
61 Battle Array
62 The Assembly
63 The Hypocrites
64 Mutual Deceit
65 Divorce
66 Forbidding
67 The Kingdom
68 The Pen
69 The Inevitable
70 The Steps
71 Noah
72 Djinn
73 The Enfolded
74 The Enwrapped
75 The Resurrection
76 Man
77 The Sent
78 The News
79 Those Who Drag
80 The Frowned
81 The Folded Up
82 The Cleaving
83 Those Who Stint
84 The Splitting
85 The Starry
86 The Night Comer
87 The Most High
88 The Overshadow
89 The Daybreak
90 The Soil
91 The Sun
92 The Night
93 The Brightnetss
94 The Opening
95 The Fig
96 Clots of Blood
97 Power
98 Clear Evidence
99 The Earthquake
100 The Chargers
101 The Blow
102 Desire
103 The Afternoon
104 The Backbiter
105 The Elephant
106 The Koreisch
107 Religion
108 Abundance
109 Unbelievers
110 Help
111 Abu Lahab
112 The Unity
113 The Daybreak
114 Men

SURA 70.–THE STEPS OR ASCENTS [XLVII.]

MECCA.–44 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

A SUITOR sued1 for punishment to light suddenly

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.2

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 portion

For him who asketh, and for him who is ashamed3 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 West4 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.


_______________________

1 Lit. asking one asked; probably some unbeliever, with reference to the opening of Sura lvi., p. 60, or like statements in some previous Sura.

2 The expression is hyperbolical, and, as such, identical with Sura [lxx.] xxxii. 4. Compare also Sura xcvii., p. 37. where the descent is said to take place in a single night.

3 Lit. forbidden or prevented by shame.

4 See next Sura. v. 16.