English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

The surah opens by exposing the ignorance of one who mockingly called for the punishment to be hastened, challenging the truth instead of believing it.

A challenger demanded the punishment whose coming is certain.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

That punishment is for the disbelievers, and when Allah sends it no one will be able to repel or prevent it.

No one can repel Allah’s punishment when it falls upon the disbelievers.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

It comes from Allah, the Possessor of the ways of ascent, a description that points to His greatness, majesty, and exaltedness.

The decree comes from Allah, Lord of the lofty ways of ascent.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

The angels and the Spirit ascend to Allah in a day whose measure is fifty thousand years, showing the immense scale and seriousness of that Day.

The tremendous measure of the Day highlights the greatness of the Hereafter.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

Allah commands His Messenger to remain beautifully patient: to endure their harm without agitation and to continue calling to the truth.

Beautiful patience endures harm while remaining steady upon the truth.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

The deniers regard the promised Resurrection and punishment as distant and unlikely because of their disbelief.

They imagine the promised Day to be far away.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

Allah sees that Day as near, because everything decreed by Him is certain to occur and nothing can prevent it.

What Allah has promised is certain, and therefore near.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

On that Day the sky will be transformed and become like molten metal, one of the terrifying upheavals of the Resurrection.

The familiar order of the sky will be overturned on the Day of Resurrection.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

The mountains, despite their present solidity, will become light and scattered like carded wool.

The mountains will lose their firmness and become like loose wool.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

The terror of the Day will be so overwhelming that even the closest friend will not ask about his friend, each person being occupied with himself.

The fear of that Day will preoccupy everyone with his own fate.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

People will see one another, yet the guilty person will care only about saving himself and will wish he could ransom himself from punishment with his own children.

The guilty will wish to sacrifice even what is dearest to escape the punishment.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

He would even offer his wife and his brother as ransom if that could rescue him from the punishment.

The terror will make a person willing to give up even his closest family.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

He would also offer the clan and relatives who used to shelter and support him in worldly life.

Worldly bonds and protection will not save anyone from Allah’s judgment.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

He would wish to give everyone on earth as ransom if only that could save him, but no such ransom will be accepted.

Nothing in creation can be exchanged for safety from the Hereafter.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

No ransom will save him. The punishment is Laza, a fiercely blazing Fire prepared for those who turned away from the truth.

There will be no escape by ransom; the blazing Fire awaits.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

Its heat and severity will strip away the outer parts of the body, showing the intensity of its punishment.

The Fire is described as fiercely stripping and consuming.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

The Fire calls those who turned their backs on obedience and deliberately turned away from faith and guidance.

It calls those who knowingly turned away from Allah’s guidance.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

It also calls the one who gathered wealth and hoarded it, withholding the rights Allah placed in it.

Amassing and hoarding wealth without fulfilling its rights is condemned.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

Al-Sa‘di explains that the human being, in his unrefined natural disposition, is intensely anxious and impatient.

Human nature needs the discipline of faith and worship.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

When hardship touches such a person, he becomes extremely distressed, impatient, and unable to bear the trial well.

Without faith’s discipline, hardship produces excessive panic and impatience.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

When ease and good come to him, he becomes withholding and reluctant to give others the rights due from what Allah granted him.

Ease can lead to miserliness unless the soul is trained by faith.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

Those devoted to prayer are excepted from this blameworthy nature: in hardship they are patient, and in blessings they thank Allah and spend from what He gave them.

Prayer is among the qualities that reform the anxious, withholding soul.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

They are constant in their prayers, maintaining this worship regularly rather than treating it as occasional or unimportant.

Steadiness in prayer is a defining quality of the successful.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

In their wealth they recognize a known right that is not treated as merely optional generosity.

The believer recognizes that the needy have a due right in his wealth.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

That right is given both to the person who asks because of need and to the deprived person whose need is not openly expressed.

Care extends to both the asking needy and the deprived who may not ask.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

They firmly believe in the Day of Recompense, and this certainty drives them to prepare for accountability through righteous deeds.

Certainty in the Day of Judgment shapes how they live and worship.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

They fear their Lord’s punishment, so that fear keeps them away from the causes that lead to it and urges them toward obedience.

Sound fear of Allah leads a person away from what brings punishment.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

No one should feel completely secure from Allah’s punishment; the faithful remain watchful over themselves instead of becoming complacent.

A believer does not become careless or falsely secure about the Hereafter.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

They guard their chastity and keep themselves away from unlawful sexual acts and the means that lead toward them.

Chastity includes avoiding both forbidden acts and the paths that lead to them.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

They are not blameworthy for lawful intimacy with their spouses and those lawfully under their authority according to the revealed law.

Allah distinguished lawful intimacy from forbidden sexual conduct.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

Whoever seeks sexual fulfillment beyond the lawful bounds set by Allah has crossed the limit and is among the transgressors.

Going beyond Allah’s lawful limits is transgression.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

They faithfully preserve what has been entrusted to them and keep the promises and covenants for which they are responsible.

Faithfulness to trusts and covenants is part of complete upright character.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

They stand firmly by their testimonies, giving truthful witness and not hiding, altering, or neglecting it.

Truthful testimony protects rights and justice.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

They carefully guard their prayers, preserving their conditions, times, essential acts, and what completes them.

The list of qualities closes by emphasizing careful protection of prayer.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

Those who possess these qualities will be honored in the Gardens with lasting blessings, receiving what delights hearts and eyes.

Their faith, worship, generosity, chastity, and trustworthiness lead to honored life in Paradise.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

Allah exposes the delusion of the disbelievers who rushed eagerly toward the Prophet, gathering around him while still rejecting his message.

They hurried toward the Messenger, yet did not approach his message with faith.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

They gathered in separate groups on his right and left, surrounding him while persisting in disbelief and mockery.

Their physical nearness to the Messenger did not benefit them without belief.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

Does every one of these disbelievers expect to enter a Garden of bliss while rejecting the very faith and deeds that lead to it?

Paradise is not attained by wishful thinking while rejecting faith.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

No. They know the humble substance from which Allah created them, so they have no basis for pride or for assuming that Paradise is owed to them.

Their origin should remove arrogance and remind them of Allah’s complete power.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

Allah swears by the Lord of all the points of sunrise and sunset—signs of His power—that He is fully able to resurrect and replace them.

The ordered risings and settings are signs of Allah’s power over resurrection.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

Allah is able to replace them with people better than them, and no one can escape, frustrate, or overpower His will.

Allah can replace them, and His power cannot be outstripped.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

The Prophet is told to leave them to plunge into false speech, corrupt beliefs, and heedless play until they meet the Day they have been promised.

Their heedless play will end when they meet the promised Day.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

On that Day they will emerge rapidly from their graves toward the summons, as if rushing eagerly toward a fixed marker.

They will rush from the graves when called to the gathering.

English Tafsir (Al-Sa‘di):

Their eyes will be lowered and humiliation will cover them. This is the very Day they were repeatedly promised and warned about.

The promised Day ends their arrogance with visible humiliation.

Summary of the Meanings:

A mocker demanded the punishment to be hastened, but Allah declares that it is certain and cannot be repelled. The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him, and the Messenger is commanded to show beautiful patience: the deniers see the promised Day as distant, while Allah declares it near and inevitable.

The sky and mountains will be transformed, close friends will be too overwhelmed to ask about one another, and the guilty will wish to ransom themselves with family and everyone on earth. No ransom will be accepted; the blazing Fire calls those who turned away and hoarded wealth.

Human beings are naturally anxious in hardship and withholding in ease, except those shaped by sincere faith: constant and guarded prayer, giving the needy their due, certainty in the Day of Judgment, fear of Allah’s punishment, chastity, faithfulness to trusts and covenants, and truthful testimony. Such people will be honored in the Gardens.

The disbelievers gathered around the Prophet yet foolishly hoped for Paradise without faith. Allah reminds them of their humble origin and swears by the Lord of the easts and wests that He can replace them and cannot be outdone. They are left to their heedlessness until the Day when they rush from the graves with lowered eyes and humiliation.

Al-Sa‘di presents Surah Al-Ma‘ārij as a contrast between denial and certainty, uncontrolled human nature and disciplined faith, and temporary worldly pride and the unavoidable reality of the Hereafter.