المعارج
The Ascending Stairways
Explanations are simplified from tafsirs by Ibn Kathir, Mufti Muhammad Shafi, and Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Spot an inaccuracy? Let us know.
ʿalā an nubaddila khayran min'hum wamā naḥnu bimasbūqīna
To replace them with better than them; and We are not to be outdone.
fadharhum yakhūḍū wayalʿabū ḥattā yulāqū yawmahumu alladhī yūʿadūna
So leave them to converse vainly and amuse themselves until they meet their Day which they are promised -
yawma yakhrujūna mina l-ajdāthi sirāʿan ka-annahum ilā nuṣubin yūfiḍūna
The Day they will emerge from the graves rapidly as if they were, toward an erected idol, hastening.
khāshiʿatan abṣāruhum tarhaquhum dhillatun dhālika l-yawmu alladhī kānū yūʿadūna
Their eyes humbled, humiliation will cover them. That is the Day which they had been promised.